Katya Kane and the Red Pyramid
by 9 Royal Flush
Summary: Katya has lived three summers at Camp Half-Blood, and three years at the Twenty-first Nome with Amos. Last summer she was away on a quest, the Quest for Artemis with Percy, Thalia, and the Hunters. When the Kane siblings show up at Brooklyn House she finds herself saving the world... again. Book 1 of the Katya Kane series
1. Chapter I

_**Chapter I**_

**Katya**

I walked into Brooklyn House to be greeted by running, monsters, and strangers. Serpopards were attacking Phillip. I ran onto the balcony to also find a boy and a girl trying to figure out what Khufu was saying.

Phillip rose above the water and came down on the Serpopards. I thought he was going to make it and the Serpopards weren't but I guess I was wrong. The Serpopards came back up, I clicked my bracelet and it formed into a bow and a quiver full of arrows, I shot one arrow distracting the two beasts away from the boy and girl.

"Who are you?" The boy yelled.

"Not the time!" I yelled back. I swung the bow across my chest and pulled out my sword and swung at the monster. I usually didn't go for killing animals, but this was a monster trying to kill us. I dodged quickly there long necks tangling themselves with one another.

"I order you to protect us!" I heard. The cat suddenly turned into a goddess and she helped me finish off the Serpopards.

"M-Muffin? Who are you, and why are you my _cat?_" The girl asked.

"Carter, Sadie, we should leave. Worse will be coming," she said.

Carter made a choking sound. "_Worse? _Who—how—what—"

"All in good time." The woman stretched her arms above her head with great satisfaction. "So good to be in human form again! Now, Sadie, can you open us a door through the Duat, please?"

"Um… no. I mean—I don't know how."

"How about you Katya?" She asked clearly disappointed.

"Nope, just a Nature Magician," I replied shrugging. I knew what this was about. Julius Kane let loose Set. Now he is either dead or in a sarcophagus. His children hosted gods. Horus, and Iris.

"Shame. We'll need more power, then. An obelisk."

"But that's in London," Sadie protested. "We can't—"

"There's a nearer one in Central Park. I try to avoid Manhattan, but this is an emergency. We'll just pop over and open a portal."

"Portal to where?" She demanded. "Who are you, and why are you my cat?"

The woman smiled. "For now we just want a portal out of danger. As for my name, it is _not _Muffin, thank you very much. It's—"

"Bast," Carter interrupted. "Your pendant—it's the symbol of Bast, goddess of cats. I thought it was just decoration but… that's you, isn't it?"

"Very good, Carter," Bast said. "Now come, while we can still make it out of here alive."

**Carter**

So, yeah. Our cat was a goddess.

What else is new?

Bast didn't give us much time to talk about it. Or the very scary girl with emerald eyes that helped defeat the Serpopards. She ordered me to the library to grab my dad's magic kit, and when I came back she was arguing with Sadie about Khufu and Phillip.

"We have to search for them!" She insisted.

"They'll be fine," said Bast. "However, _we_ will not be, unless we leave now."

"The house was sabotaged. We need to get out of here. And Bast is right they will be fine," Katya said. Bast grabbed our arms and led us out the front door. She'd sheathed her knives, but she still had some sharp claws for fingernails that hurt as they dug into my skin. Katya followed behind us.

We were about to the obelisk when we were attacked by the Scorpion Goddess. Bast stayed behind and Katya led us to the obelisk. We also ran into the girl from the British Museum, We went through and she passed out. I think it was from the exhaustion of fighting the Serpopards, running for her life, and using a ton of magical energy to open up a magic portal. I held onto her as Sadie spoke. I looked like Katya was having a nightmare but I couldn't wake her up.

**Katya**

_Percy and I fell down in front of Artemis. We looked up to see her straining body, struggling to hold up the weight of the sky._

_ "Give me the sky." I ordered._

_ "No, you must run." She said._

_ "We cannot defeat Atlas. But you can. Let us hold the sky together." Percy said urgently Atlas was coming closer and electricity crackled in front of us. Without waiting for an answer we cut her chains and we lifted the sky from her. It was the heaviest thing I have ever lifted. Even with Percy and I combining efforts I still wanted to black out from the pain. Artemis battled Atlas and Thalia and Luke fought. _

"_Let's see how well the girl does without you, shall we?" The blunt side of Atlas' spear came and knocked him out from under the sky. No, this was the heaviest thing I have ever felt. Percy yelled and tried to reach me but Atlas cut him off. "You shall not reach her," he said. Annabeth still struggled to communicate with us, and Thalia and Luke still fought. I could hear my joints cracking and my ribs cracked. I let out a strangled cry. The pain became increasingly stronger every moment. But I blinked back tears and lifted my arms higher. Red encircled my blurry vision. I saw Zoë get thrown back and onto the rocks. My bones cracked under the extreme weight. I saw Artemis fight and throw Atlas back at me. He was going to take the burden he once had. Atlas threw me back and I crashed into Percy._

"_Katya," he cried. I looked up at him, my ice blue eyes fighting to keep focus on his sea green ones. "Hey, stay with me, stay with me okay." I was breathing raggedly and snow began to fall softly around the cavern. Ice spread around the room centering in my heart._

**Carter**

_"Ow!" _I grumbled.

The first thing I noticed was the fine layer of sand covering my body like powdered sugar as I held onto Katya's unconscious body. Then my eyed adjusted to the harsh light. We were in a big building like a shopping mall, with crowds bustling around us.

No… not a mall. It was a two-level airport concourse, with shops, lots of windows, and polished columns. Outside, it was dark, so I knew we must be in a different time zone. Announcements echoed over the intercom in a language that sounded like Arabic.

Sadie spit sand out of her mouth. "Yuck!"

"The girl," said Zia. "Who is she?"

"We don't know. She just came into Brooklyn House as we were being attacked. Bast seems to trust her, and she saved our lives, so…" Sadie trailed off.

"I see," Zia said. "This girl has been through things we can only imagine. She is burdened with a power that she does not want."

"How'd you figure that out?" Sadie asked disbelievingly. Zia stayed quiet and looked away. Sadie rolled her eyes.

"Come on," Zia said. "We can't stay here."

I struggled to my feet. People were streaming past—some in Western clothes, some in robes and head scarves. A family arguing in German rushed by and almost knocked me over with their suitcases.

Then I turned and saw something I recognized. In the middle of the concourse stood a life-size replica of an Ancient Egyptian boat. Made from glowing display cases—a sales counter for perfume and jewelry.

"This is the Cairo airport," I said. Suddenly Katya woke up and stood on her feet though she supported herself on Sadie's shoulder.

"Yes," Zia said. "Now, let's go!"

"Why the rush? Can Serqet… can she follow us through that sand gate?"

Zia shook her head. "An artifact overheats whenever it creates a gat. It requires a twelve-hour cooldown before it can be used again. But we still have to worry about airport security. Unless you'd like to meet the Egyptian police, you'll come with me _now_."

She grabbed our arms and steered us through the crowd. We must've looked like beggars in our old-fashioned clothes, covered head-to-toe in sand. People gave us a wide berth, but nobody tried to stop us.

"Why are we here?" Sadie demanded.

"To see the ruins of Heliopolis," Zia said. Katya stayed silent she looked like she was back to normal. She pulled out what looked like brownies out of her backpack and shoved some into her mouth and she immediately looked better. Her skin seemed to glow and her hair didn't seem so dull.

"Inside an _airport_?" Sadie asked.

I remembered something Dad had told me years ago, and my scalp tingled.

"Sadie, the ruins are _under _us." I looked at Zia. "That's right, isn't it?"

She nodded. "The ancient city was pillaged centuries ago. Some of its monuments were carted away, like Cleopatra's two needles. Most of its temples were broken down to make new buildings. What was left disappeared under Cairo's suburbs. The largest section is under this airport."

"And how does that help us?" Sadie asked.

Zia kicked open a maintenance door. On the other side was a broom closet. Zia muttered a command—_"Sahad"_—and the image of the closet disappeared, revealing a set of stone steps leading down.

"Because not _all _Heliopolis is in ruins," Zia said. "Follow closely. And _touch nothing_."

The stairs must've led down about seven million miles, because we descended _forever. _The passage had been made for miniature people, too. We had to crouch and crawl moat of the way, and even so, I bonked my head on the ceiling a dozen times. The only light was from a ball of fire in Zia's palm, which made shadows dance across the walls.

I'd been places like this before—tunnels inside pyramids, tombs my dad had excavated—but I've never liked them. Millions of tons of rock above me seemed to crush the air out of my lungs.

Finally we reached the bottom. The tunnel opened up, and Zia and Katya stopped abruptly, I saw why. We were standing at the edge of the chasm.

A single wooden plank spanned the void. On the opposite ledge, two jackal-headed granite warriors flanked a doorway, their spears crossed over the entrance.

Sadie sighed. "Please no more psychotic statues."

"Do not joke," Zia warned. "This is an entrance to the First Nome, the oldest branch of the House of Life, headquarters for all magicians. My job was to bring you here safely, but I cannot help you cross. Each magician must unbar the path for herself, and the challenge is different for each supplicant."

She looked at Sadie expectantly, which annoyed me. First Bast, now Zia—both of them treated Sadie like she should have superpowers. I mean, okay, so she'd been able to blast the library doors apart, but why didn't anyone look at _me _to do cool tricks?

Plus, I was still annoyed with Sadie for the comments she'd made the museum in New York—how often I wanted to complain about the constant travelling, how many days I wanted to complain about the constant travelling, how many days I wished I didn't have to get on a plane and could just be like a normal kid going to school and making friends. But I couldn't complain. _You always have to look impeccable, _dad had told me. And he didn't just mean my clothes. He meant my attitude. With Mom gone, I was all he had. Dad needed me to be strong. Most days, I didn't mind. I loved my dad. But it was also hard.

Sadie didn't understand that. _She _had it easy. And now she seemed to be getting all the attention, as if _she _were the special one. It wasn't fair.

Then I heard Dad's voice in my head: "Fairness means everyone gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."

I didn't know what got into me, but I drew my sword and marched across the plank. It was like my legs were working by themselves, not waiting for my brain. Part of me thought: _This is a really bad idea. _But part of me answered: _No, we do not fear this. _And the voice didn't sound like mine.

"Carter!" Sadie cried.

I kept walking. I tried not to look down at the yawning void under my feet, but the sheer size of the chasm made me dizzy. I felt like one of those gyroscope toys, spinning and wobbling as I crossed the narrow plank.

As I got closer to the opposite side, the doorway between the two statues began to glow, like a curtain of red light.

I took a deep breathe. Maybe the red light was a portal, like the gate of sand. If I just charged through fast enough…

Then the first dagger shot out of the tunnel.

My sword was in motion before I realized it. The dagger should've impaled me in the chest, but somehow I deflected it with my blade and sent it sailing into the abyss. Two more daggers shot out of the tunnel. I'd never had the best reflexes, but now they sped up. I ducked one dagger and hooked the other with the curved blade of my sword, turned the dagger and flung it back into the tunnel. _How the heck did I do that?_

I advanced to the plank and slashed through the red light, which flickered and died. I waited for the statues to come alive, but nothing happened. The only sound was a dagger clattering against the rocks in the chasm below.

The doorway began to glow again. The red light coalesced into a strange form: a five-foot tall bird with a man's head. I raised my sword, but Zia yelled," Carter, no!"

The bird creature folded his wings. His eyes, lined with kohl, narrowed as they studied me. A black ornamental wig glistened on its head, and his face was etched with wrinkles. One of those fake braided pharaoh beards was stuck in his chin like a backward ponytail. He didn't look hostile, except, for the red flickering light all around him, and the fact that from the neck down he was the world's largest killer turkey.

Then a chilling thought occurred to me: This was a bird with a human head, the same form I'd imagined taking when I slept in Amos' house, when my soul left my body and flew to Phoenix. I had no idea what that meant, but it scared me.

The bird creature scratched at the stone floor. Then unexpectedly, he smiled.

"_Pari, niswa nafeer,_" he told me, or at least that's what it sounded like.

Zia gasped. She, Katya and Sadie were standing behind me now, their faces pale. Apparently they'd been able to cross the chasm without my noticing.

Finally Zia seemed to collect herself. She bowed to the bird creature. Sadie followed her example.

The creature winked at me, as if we'd just shared a joke. Then he vanished. The red light faded. The statues retracted their arms, uncrossing their spears from the entrance.

"That's it?" I asked. "What did the turkey say?"

Zia looked at me with something like fear. "That was not a turkey, Carter. That was a _ba_,"

I'd heard my dad use that word before, but I couldn't place it. "Another monster?"

"A human soul," Zia said. "In this case, a spirit of the dead. A magician from ancient times, come back to serve as s guardian. They watch the entrances of the House."

She studied my face as if I'd just developed some terrible rash.

"What?" I demanded. "Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Nothing," she said. "We must hurry."

She squeezed me on the ledge and disappeared into the tunnel.

Sadie was staring at me too.

"All right," I said. "What did the bird guy ask? You understood it?"

She nodded uneasily. "He mistook you for someone else. He must have had bad eyesight."

"Because?"

"Because he said, 'Go forth, good king.'" Katya said.

I was in a daze after that. We passed through the tunnel and entered a vast underground city of halls and chambers, but I only remember bits and pieces of it.

The ceilings soared to twenty or thirty feet, so it didn't feel like we were underground. Every chamber was lined with massive columns like the ones I'd seen in Egyptian ruins, but these were in perfect condition, brightly painted to look like palm trees, with carved green fronds at the top, so I felt like I was walking through a petrified forest. Fires burned in copper braziers. They didn't seem to make any smoke, but the air smelled good, like a marketplace for spices—cinnamon, clove, and others I couldn't identify. The city smelled like Zia. I realized this was her home. I noticed Katya took her time and stayed a few feet away from the fires, like they would hurt her if she got to close. Well they would, but like, a foot away was too close for her.

We saw a few other people—mostly older men and women. Some wore linen robes, some modern clothes. One guy in a business suit walked past with a black leopard on a leash, as if that were completely normal. Another guy barked orders to a small army of brooms, mops, and buckets that were scuttling around, cleaning up the city.

"Like that cartoon," Sadie said. "Where Mickey Mouse tries to do magic and the brooms keep splitting and toting water."

"'The Sorcerer's Apprentice,'" Zia said. "You do know that was based on an Egyptian story, don't you?"

Sadie just stared back. I knew how she felt. It was too much to process.

"Annabeth would love this," Katya said.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, my friend Annabeth. She loves architecture, particularly Ancient Greek. But this would be just as fascinating for her." I nodded not knowing what else to say. I barely knew her but it felt like we spent a lifetime together, with all that was happening, it felt like a lifetime. Like when you've gone to elementary, middle, and high school together but you barely know them. At least that's what I think it would have felt like. I hadn't been able to know people for that long.

We walked through a hall of jackal-headed statues, and I could swear their eyes watched us as we past. A few minutes later, Zia led us through an open-air market—if you can call anything "open-air" underground—with dozens of stalls selling weird items like boomerang wands, animated clay dolls, parrots, cobras, papyrus scrolls, and hundreds of different glittering amulets.

Next we crossed a path of stones over a dark river teeming with fish. I thought they were perch until I saw their vicious teeth.

"Are those piranhas?" I asked.

"Tiger fish from the Nile," Zia said. "Like piranhas, except these can weigh up to sixteen pounds."

I watched my step closely after that.

We turned the corner and passed an ornate building carved out of black rock. Seated pharaohs were chiseled into the walls, and the doorway was shaped like a coiled serpent.

"What's in there?" Sadie asked.

We peeked inside and saw rows of children—maybe two dozen in all, about six to ten years old or so—sitting cross-legged on cushions. They were hunched over brass bowls, peering intently into some sort of liquid and speaking under their breath. At first I thought it was a classroom, but there was no sign of a teacher, and the chamber was lit only by a few candles. Judging by the number of empty seats, the room was meant to hold twice as many kids.

"Our initiates," Zia said, "learning to scry. The First Nome must keep in touch with our brethren all over the world. We use our youngest as… operators, I suppose you would say."

"So you've got bases like this all over the world?"

"Most are much smaller, but yes."

I remembered what Amos had told us about the nomes. "Egypt is the First Nome. New York is the Twenty-first. What's the Three-hundred-and-sixtieth?"

"That would be Antarctica," Zia said. "A punishment assignment. Nothing there but a couple of cold magicians and some magic penguins."

"Magic penguins?"

"Don't ask."

Sadie pointed to the children inside. "How does it work? They see images in the water?"

"It's oil," Zia said. "But yes."

"So few," Sadie said. "Are these the only initiates in the whole city?"

"In the whole _world_," Zia corrected. "There were more before—"She stopped herself.

"Before what?" I asked.

"Nothing," Zia said darkly. "Initiates do our scrying because young minds are most receptive. Magicians being trained no later than the age of ten… with a few dangerous exceptions."

"You mean me and Sadie," I said.

"And Katya," Zia finished off.

"Actually I have already been trained. By Amos. He found me and took me in. I didn't want to look into oil all day, and you didn't offer help for my… capabilities."

"And what do you specialize in?" Zia asked.

"Ice magic." Zia rose an eyebrow but said nothing about it. That's why she was staying far away from the fire it wasn't her element.

"They'll be waiting for you. Come along."

We walked so far my feet began to ache.

Finally we arrive at a crossroads. On the right was a massive set of bronze doors with fire blazing on either side; on the left, a twenty-foot-tall sphinx carved into the wall. A doorway nestled between it's paws, but it was bricked in and covered in cobwebs.

"That looks like the Sphinx at Giza," I said.

"That's because we are directly under the _real _Sphinx," Zia said. "That tunnel leads straight up to it. Or it used to before it was sealed."

"But…" I did some quick calculations in my head. "The Sphinx is, like, twenty miles away from the Cairo Airport."

"Roughly."

"No way we've walked that far."

Zia actually smiles, and I couldn't help but notice how pretty her eyes were. "Distance changes in magical places, Carter. Surely you've learned that by now."

Sadie cleared her throat. "So why is this tunnel closed, then?"

"The Sphinx was too popular with archaeologists," Zia said. "They kept digging around. Finally, in the 1980's, they discovered the first part of the tunnel under the Sphinx."

"Dad told me about that!" I said. "But he said the tunnel was a dead end."

"It was when we got through with it. We couldn't let the archaeologists know how much they're missing. Egypt's leading archaeologist recently speculated that they've only discovered thirty percent of the ancient ruins in Egypt. In truth, they've only discovered one tenth, and not even the _interesting_ tenth."

"What about King Tut's tomb?" I protested.

"That boy king?" Zia rolled her eyes. "_Boring. _You should have seen the _good_ tombs."

I felt a little hurt. Dad named me after Howard Carter, the guy who discovered King Tut's tomb, so I'd always felt a personal attachment to it. If that wasn't a "good" tomb, I wondered what was.

"I've always found Greek mythology far more interesting than Egyptian. At least the Greeks made their gods realistic. Not with animal heads and human bodies."

"Well it isn't real, so why bother with it?" Zia asked.

"You'd be surprised," Katya murmured as Zia faced the bronze doors.

"This is the Hall of Ages." She placed her palm against the seal, which bore the symbol of the House of Life.

The hieroglyphs began to glow, and the doors swung open.

Zia turned to us, her expression deadly serious. "You are about to meet the Chief Lector. Behave yourselves, unless you wish to be turned into insects."

**Katya**

The Hall of Ages had two rows of stone pillars that held the ceiling up so high that Zeus could stand up in his original form and not hit his head. A shimmering blue carpet that looked like the creek that Percy swims in with me ran down the hall to the end that I could not see. Balls of fire the size of basketballs floated around giving of light and changing color when they bumped into one another. Millions of hieroglyphic symbols also floated around the room combining into words then breaking apart.

Carter grabbed a pair of legs, they just walked across his hand and jumped off. But on the sidelines, flat funnels swirled giving off images that focus in and out.

"Come on," Zia said. "And don't spend too much time looking."

We walked on and I could tell we were seeing the Age of the Gods. Sadie started walking towards one of the funnels, she reached out to touch it.

"Stay on the carpet!" Zia grabbed Sadie's hand and pulled her back to the center of the hall. "You are seeing the Age of the Gods. No mortal should dwell on these images."

"But… They're only pictures, aren't they?"

"Memories," Zia said. "So powerful they could destroy your mind."

"Oh," was all Sadie could say. I smiled at her hoping she didn't feel too bad. She only found out about this stuff a day or two ago. I remember when I was brought to Camp Half-Blood.

We kept walking and the images turned to silver. We saw Narmer; the king who united Upper and Lower Egypt place a crown on his head.

"This is the Old Kingdom," Carter guessed. "The first great age of Egypt."

Zia nodded and we kept walking. We saw the pyramids being built and the workers who built it knelt before the pharaoh, who raised his hands to the sun and dedicated his own tomb. Who dedicates their own tomb?

"Khufu," Carter said.

"The baboon?" Sadie asked.

"No the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid. It was the world's tallest structure for almost four-thousand years." The images turned from silver to copper.

"The Middle Kingdom," Zia announced. "A bloody, chaotic time. And yet this is when the House of Life came to maturity."

"Dark times bring people together, or split them apart," I said shocking everyone. We watched armies clash and soon the light turned bronze.

"The New Kingdom," Carter guessed. "The last time Egypt was ruled by Egyptians."

We watched Hatshepsut ruling Egypt, and Ramesses the Great leading his chariots into battle. We watched magicians duel in a palace. A man in tattered robes, with a shaggy beard and wild eyes, threw down his staff, which turned into a serpent and devoured a dozen other snakes.

"Moses," Katya said.

"The only foreigner to defeat the House in a magic duel."

"You're kidding right?" Carter stared disbelievingly at Zia.

"We would not kid over such a thing."  
>We passed Alexander the Great ruling over the known world. We past more familiar scenes and soon we reached the end of the hall. Desjardins spoke for Iskandar as Iskandar could not speak in English. I blocked out most of the conversation but I stayed present.<p> 


	2. Chapter II

_**Chapter II**_

**Katya**

Carter was taken to a different dormitory as me and Sadie, probably because of his gender. I believe she is not sleeping well. I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to go back to see Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. I made flurries of snow come from my fingertips to relax my nerves. Thanks to Amos I could control it. My mother is Khione, goddess of snow, if I haven't told you yet.

__I noticed Sadie staring at me through the darkness.

"You weren't kidding when you said that you had ice magic," I smiled softly at her words. "So, why were you at Brooklyn House?"

"Amos is my uncle," I said oblivious to the fact that we were cousins.

"He's our uncle too," she whispered wary of the young girls sleeping next to us.

"Does that mean we are—"

"Cousins? Yeah," she said.

"Goodnight," I said not wanting to think about it. I don't think that she went to sleep though.

I woke up to Sadie's yelling, apparently Zia doused her with water. _Water. Percy. _Gods I missed him.

Zia was getting Carter and Sadie ready for training. I was to watch. Zia had them duel each other, personally I thought it was a little dangerous. But I was a demi-god who was I to judge?

I noticed that they were progressing far faster than they should. It only took me two days to master Divine Words—but that was because I was a demi-god, according to Amos. The only other way to advance this fast was to—host gods. We needed to get out of here right now, but without making a scene. How do we do that I wonder?

"The obelisk at the, fool! You have five minutes perhaps less, before Desjardins sends orders for your execution. Flee, and destroy Set, The Demon Days begin at sundown. All portals will stop working. You need to get as close as possible to Set before that happens." Zia's voice snapped me out of my planning to get us out of here. She was ordering us to leave? Good enough for me. I grabbed Carter and Sadie and we ran to the obelisk.

As we were reaching the obelisk we saw a magician step out of the portal. We had to get in that one or else the portal would be locked for the next twelve hours. I kept running my inborn battle reflexes helped with this, and the fact that I was being stupid. I let go of Carter and Sadie's hands and ran faster towards the chanting magician. I kicked myself of the ground, spun in the air and my foot came down on the magician's head successfully knocking him out. I stood up and ran towards the closing portal as Sadie and Carter caught up with me we dove into the portal. We quickly stood up covered in sand and looked around to see Bast.

"That was brilliant!" Sadie turned on me. "The way you leapt in the air and came down on his head. Brilliant! You are brilliant!" I laughed and turned to Bast.

We huddled under a government building. It was terrible weather to be in Paris, it was cold, wet, and gray. Bast healed Carter's chest and they talked about her being back and not dead while I spaced out watching the gray clouds swirl around each other.

Suddenly thunder cracked. And I felt myself disappear.

_**Carter**_

I looked over to Katya to see her being sucked into the ground. "Katya!" I exclaimed but was unable to move because of my broken rib.

"What happened?" Bast asked.

"She just—dissolved or something I don't know." Bast nodded.

"Katya has something she must attend to we will meet up later."

_**Katya**_

__I appeared in The Big House in front of Chiron and Dionysus, I was also uncoordinated being teleported across the globe.

"It has come to the gods' attention that you have been associating yourselves with Egyptians." Chiron began. "This is not acceptable."

"Well, my father's side of my family are magicians, and the world is about to end with the awakening of Set, so…''

"You are to stay here and let your cousins handle it," Mr. D said.

"No!" Said an alarmed Katya. "I been _associating _myself with magicians for years and the gods don't care! Why should they now?"

"We can't have another Hundred Years' War! What would we do then?" Mr. D said.

"The Hundred Years' War was fought—"

"Between the Egyptian and the Greek gods. We cannot have that happening again," Chiron interrupted. "Ever since it ended the Greeks and Egyptians have had an intense rivalry ever since."

"What if I offered myself up as a mediator between the two? I will come in whenever there is a disagreement against the gods I come in, since I am both."

"That seems agreeable. Yes that will be very good, Mr. D why don't you send this young one home?"

"Wait!" I turned to Chiron. "Can you promise me that me two lives will never meet?" I asked.

"No," he said simply.

"Can you promise me that you will do everything in your power to make sure they do not meet? It could cause war. Which is something we don't need," Chiron nodded and I let myself be transported to Olympus.

_**Katya**_


	3. Chapter III

_** Chapter III**_

**Katya**

I appeared back where Carter, Sadie and Bast were, I was surprised I wasn't in Olympus, but I wasn't going to ask for a meeting with all-powerful beings that hated me. I came back to something… odd.

Carter was kind of freaking out. "Oh, no. No, no, no. Somebody get a can opener. I've got a god stuck in my head."

Bast's eyes lit up. "You've communicated with Horus directly? That's excellent progress!"

"Progress?" He banged his palms against his head. "Get him out!" There was a short pause in his yelling. "Don't tell me to calm down!"

"We didn't," I said.

"Talking to him!" He said pointing at his forehead.

"This is awful," Sadie wailed. "How do I get rid of her?"

Bast sniffed. "First off, Sadie, you don't have _all _of her. Gods are very powerful. We can exist in many places at once. But yes, part of Isis' spirit now resides inside you. Just as Carter now carries the spirit of Horus. And frankly, you both should feel honored."

"Right, very honored," I said. "Always wanted to be possessed!"

"You aren't possessed." I said, "If you were possessed you would not have control of your mind or body."

"Isis got in through the amulet, didn't she? Well, I'll just—"

"I really wouldn't do that," Bast warned.

But Sadie pulled out her wand and smashed the amulet. Blue sparks shot up from the ivory boomerang. Sadie yelped and dropped her wand, which was now smoking. Her hand was covered in black scorch marks. The amulet was fine. "_Ow!" _She yelped.

Bast sighed and healed Sadie. "I _did _tell you. Isis channeled her power through the amulet, yes, but she's not there now. She's in _you. _And even so, magical amulets are practically indestructible."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Sadie asked.

"Well, for starters," Bast began, "Carter must use the power of Horus to defeat Set."

"Oh, is that all?" He said. "All by myself?"

"No, no. Sadie can help."

"Oh, super."

"What about Katya? Why is she here?" Sadie asked.

"Same reason as you," I said. "To save my uncle, and the world."

"Uncle?" Carter squeaked. _Right, _Carter doesn't know yet.

"Katya's our cousin," Sadie said. "I must've forgotten to mention that."

"Amos, is your dad?"

"No, Amos and Julius have another brother, he… died long ago."

"I'll guide you as much as possible," Bast promised, "but in the end, the two of you must fight. Only Horus and Isis can defeat Set and avenge the death of Osiris. That's the way it was before. That's the way it must be now."

"Then we get our dad back?" I asked.

Bast's smile wavered. "If all goes well."

She wasn't telling us everything. But I knew that if I pushed it she would be extra cautious not to let anything slip, I just had to be alert, wait until she unknowingly revealed the truth.

Carter looked down at his hands. "If I've got the powers of a god, then why am I so…?"

"Lame?" Sadie offered.

"Shut up," I said. "Why can't I use my powers better?"

"Takes practice," I said.

"Unless you wish to give over control to Horus. Then he would use your form, and you would not have to worry," said Bast.

There was a long pause and Carter was looking up at his eyebrows oddly. "No." He looked at us as if he had been caught making muscles at himself in the mirror. "I mean I'm not giving up control. This is _our _fight. Our dad's locked in a coffin. Our uncle's been captured."

"Captured?" Sadie asked. Then Carter explained to us his _ba _trip.

"Gods, no," I said to myself. Amos was the only family I had left up until a day ago. We had to get him back.

"Yeah," Carter agreed. "And Set spoke French— '_Bon soir.' _Sadie, what you said about Set getting away—maybe he didn't. If he was just looking for a powerful host—"

"Desjardins," I finished.

Bast growled deep in her throat. "Desjardins was in London the night your father broke the Rosetta Stone, wasn't he? Desjardins has always been full of anger, full of ambition. In many ways, he would be the perfect host for Set. If Set managed to possess Desjardins' body, that would mean the Red Lord now controls the man who is Chief Lector of the House…. By Ra's throne, Carter, I hope you're wrong. The two of you will have to learn to use the power of the gods quickly. Whatever Set is planning, he'll do it on his birthday, when he's strongest. That's the third Demon Day—three days from now."

"But I've already used Isis' powers, haven't I?" Sadie asked. "I've summoned hieroglyphs. I activated the obelisk at Luxor. Was that her or me?"

"Both, dear," Bast said. "You and Carter have great abilities on your own, but the power of the gods has hastened your own development, and given you an extra reservoir to draw on. What would've taken you years to learn, you've accomplished in days. The more you channel the power of the gods, the more powerful you become."

"And the more dangerous it gets," I guessed. "The magicians told us hosting gods can burn you out, kill you, drive you crazy."

Bast fixed her eyes on Carter. Just for a second they were the eyes of a predator—ancient, powerful, dangerous. "Not everyone can host a god Carter. That's true. But _you _two are _both _blood of the pharaohs. You combine _two _ancient bloodlines. That's very rare, very powerful. And besides, if you think you can survive _without _the power of the gods, think again. Don't repeat your mother's—"

"What?" Sadie demanded. "What about our mother?"

"I shouldn't have said that."

"Tell us, cat!" Sadie exclaimed.

Bast leaned against the wall and stared out at the rain. "When your parents released me from Cleopatra's Needle… there was much more energy than they expected. Your father spoke the actual summoning spell, and the blast would've killed him instantly, but your mother threw up a shield. In that split second, I offered her my help. I offered h to merge our spirits and help protect them. But she would not accept my help. She chose to tap her own reservoir…."

"Her own magic," Sadie murmured.

Bast nodded sadly. "When a magician commits herself to a spell, there is no turning back. If she overreaches her power… well, your mother used her last bit of energy protecting your father. To save him, she sacrificed herself. She literally—"

"Burned up," I said.

"That's what Zia warned us about," Carter said.

The rain poured down, and I realized that Carter and Sadie were shivering. Well I couldn't do anything about that; I was the daughter of Khione. But with that thought I slipped into unwanted memories.

_Percy, Annabeth, and I ran into the Olympian's Throne Room, they were in a deep argument over Zeus' stolen lightning bolt._

"_Stop!" Annabeth yelled._

"_We, um, here's your lightning bolt, sir," Percy stuttered._

"_You were wise to betray your father, Perseus Jackson," Zeus said._

"_He didn't steal it." I said._

"_Quiet, girl!" Zeus ordered from his throne._

"_It was Luke Castellan!" I said._

"_Hermes' boy?" Hera asked. I nodded._

"_He was upset with all of you. He wanted you to destroy yourselves," I plead Percy's case. They paused for a moment pondering over my claim, then everyone looked at me with alarm. I looked towards Percy and Annabeth confused. I was hoping for answers but they didn't give me any. They were all looking at me the same, shocked and fearful._

"_A Titan spawn." Aphrodite said._

"_A what?" I asked._

"_Daughter of Khione, you are not welcome on Olympus." Said Zeus. I looked to Percy and Annabeth wondering what was happening, but they weren't even looking at me, they were looking at the floating, glowing, giant snowflake that floated above my head._

"_Snowflake," Percy said using his nickname he gave me, "There's a golden snowflake above your head."_

"_Let's kill her!" Ares raged._

"_She's a reliable asset to us!" Athena yelled back._

"_I say kill her," said Hera._

"_We vote," said Zeus, "to kill the Titan spawn, or keep her around, since she is a powerful one."_

_My twelve year old self was very confused. Did this have to do with her ice powers that she was trying to keep secret? Self-consciously she tugged on the black gloves she wore. Suddenly the gods were voting whether to kill her or not, she knew that Khione wasn't very well liked by the twelve main Olympians, or was it because of her being in touch with her Egyptian side._

"_She lives," Zeus said. Annabeth let out a big sigh and Percy hugged her. Katya's eyes widened at the embrace, but didn't get the chance to hug him back as he pulled back and they were transported back to Olympus._

"_I don't understand it," Annabeth said. "Why don't you have ice powers if you are Khione's daughter?"_

"_I do…" I said, "I just don't like to use them. They're dangerous."_

"_How can they be dangerous if you control them?" Percy asked._

"_I don't control them. They are powered by my emotions, I don't have control over my emotions."_

"_I was reading something, years ago, an Old Norwegian scroll, it talked of a ruler with the same powers as you, I suspect another one of Khione's daughters. She was said to overcome her uncontrollable powers by welcoming love into her heart," Annabeth said as we walked back into Camp._

"_Love?" I asked. "Love." I said again more surely. I took of my gloves, I was nervous, but I needed to see if this was true. Frost and snow glittered around my fingertips. _

_I couldn't help it I laughed. "Who wants to go sledding?" I asked. They both grinned excitedly. I made a path of thick snow going down Half-Blood Hill. Then made a sled of ice big enough for the three of us. We raced down the hill towards the cabins screaming our heads off, it was one of the most fun we had had in days._

"Katya! Katya! What were you thinking about?" Sadie asked.

"Just old… memories." I said then we headed to Desjardin's house.

It was a huge mansion on the other side of the Tuileries, on the rue des Pyramides.

"Pyramids Road?" Sadie said. "Obvious, much?"

"Maybe he couldn't find a place on Stupid Evil Magician Street," Carter suggested.

The house was spectacular. Even in the winter wind there were blossoming flowers. There was five stories of white marble walls and black shuttered windows topped by a roof garden. The roof garden would put the Demeter cabin to shame.

Carter pointed at the red front door. "Isn't red a bad color in Egypt? The color of Set?"

Bast scratched her chin. "Now that you mention it, yes. It's the color of chaos and destruction."

"I thought black was the color of evil," Sadie said.

"No, dear. As usual, modern folk have it backwards. Black is the color of good soil, like the soil of the Nile. You can grow food in black soil. Food is good. Therefore black is good. Red is the color of desert sand. Nothing grows in the desert. Therefore red is evil." She frowned. "It _is _strange that Desjardins had a red door."

"In some cultures black is the color of evil," Katya said. "The night is black, the unknown. Many people fear the unknown more than anything."

"There will be guards. And traps. And alarms. You can bet the house is heavily charmed to keep out gods."

"Magicians can do that?" Carter asked. I imagined Zeus trying to climb over the walls then getting stuck from fly paper.

"Alas, yes," Bast said. "I will not be able to cross the threshold uninvited. You, however—"

"I thought we were gods too," Sadie said.

"That's the beauty of it," Bast said. "As hosts, you are still quite human. I have taken full possession of Muffin, so I am pretty much _me_—a goddess. But you are still—well, yourselves. Clear?"

"No," Carter said.

"I suggest you turn into birds," Bast said. "You can fly to the roof garden and make your way in. Plus, I like birds."

"First problem, we don't know how to turn into birds," Carter said.

"Easily fixed! And a good test at channeling godly power. Both Isis and Horus have bird forms. Simply imagine yourselves as birds, and birds you shall become."

"What about Katya?" Sadie asked.

"I won't be changing form, but I am coming with you," both of them nodded and attempted to change forms, Sadie got it almost right away, but it took Carter ten minutes.

"Better late than never," Bast's face loomed over him. "Took you almost ten minutes. Oh, you two look delicious. No, no—_er_, I mean wonderful. Now, off you go!"

They spread their wings and flew towards the house, Carter flew straight into the fence. Sadie laughed at him as much as a kite can. Soon enough, he tried again and was soaring through the rain.

I kicked off of the ground as hard as I could, my feet found spots between the metal spikes on the fence. All the enchantments weren't prepared for a demigod-magician so I just hopped off the fence and followed the birds, _er, _cousins.

I jumped from the windowsills up to the roof of the mansion, Carter sailed through the double glass doors. I hopped down right down next to them. Thank the gods for acrobatics class at camp.

Carter squeezed his eyes shut and was soon back to regular Carter. Sadie was still a kite.

"You can turn back now," he said. She tilted her head and let out a frustrated croak. "You can't, can you? You're stuck?" She pecked his hand with her beak. "_Ow!_ It's not my fault. Keep trying."

She tried until it looked like she was about to explode. "Don't worry. Bast will help once we get out of here," I said. "Keep watch we'll look around." It was then that I got a good look at the room around us. The walls were overflowing with books, the furniture was mahogany. I forgot what I was even looking for.

"What would a _Book of Thoth _even look alike?" Carter wondered. He thought for a moment more until he slung his father's bag off his shoulder and pulled out a _shabti_. "Doughboy, help me find _The Book of Thoth _in this library."

"And why should I help you?" It asked. A _shabti _with an attitude, nice.

"Because if you don't you'll be missing your head as well as your legs," I said calmly.

"Hold me up! I can't see the shelves." Carter took him on a tour of the library, it was quite fun to watch. "Hold it! This one is ancient—right here."

He pulled down a thin volume bound in linen. It was so tiny, I would've missed it, but sure enough, the front cover was inscribed with hieroglyphs.

"Doughboy," I said. "What is this scroll?"

"A spell lost in time!" He pronounced. "Ancient words of tremendous power!"

"Well?" Carter demanded. "Does it tell us how to defeat Set?"

"Better! The title reads: _The Book of Summoning Fruit Bats_!"

We stared at him. "Are you serious?" Carter asked.

"Would I joke about such a thing?"

"Who would want to summon fruit bats?"

"_Ha—ha—ha_," Sadie croaked.

Carter pushed the scroll away and we went back to searching. After about ten minutes, Doughboy squealed with delight.

"Oh, look! I remember this painting." It was a small oil painting in a gilded frame, hanging on the end of a bookshelf. It was bordered with little silk curtains, so it was probably important. A light shined up at the guys face reminding me of the ghost stories Grover, Percy, Annabeth and me used to tell.

"Isn't that the guy who plays Wolverine?" Carter asked.

"You disgust me!" Doughboy said. "That is Jean-François Champollion."

"The guy who deciphered the Rosetta Stone," Carter said.

"Of course. Desjardins' great uncle."

I looked at the painting again, I could see the resemblance, black eyes. His eyes reminded me of Bianca's. I still felt guilty over her death, just another one of the people who died. I had a job to do, _you can't cry, not while everyone is watching, wait until you're alone. _I told myself, that's what I always told myself.

"Great uncle? But wouldn't that make Desjardins—"

"About two hundred years old," Doughboy confirmed. That isn't fair, someone's life being so long while others only got fourteen short years. _Don't think about it. Get a hold of yourself. _"Still a youngster. You know that when Champollion first deciphered hieroglyphs, he fell into a coma for five days? He became the first man outside the House of Life to ever unleash their magic, and it almost killed him. Naturally, that got the attention of the First Nome. Champollion died before he could join the House of Life, but the Chief Lector accepted his descendants for training. Desjardins is very proud of his family… but a little sensitive too, because he's such a newcomer."

"That's why he didn't get along with our family," Carter guessed. "We're like… ancient."

"He called me Snow Spawn when I was training at the First Nome. They didn't know what to do with me, they thought about sending me to the Three Hundred and Sixtieth Nome."

"Where's the Three Hundred and Sixtieth Nome?" Carter asked.

"Antarctica."

Doughboy cackled. "And your father breaking the Rosetta Stone? Desjardins would've viewed that as an insult to his family honor! Oh, you should've see the arguments Master Julius and Desjardins had in this room?"

"You've been here before?"

"Many times! I've been everywhere. I'm all-knowing."

Suddenly there was a banging sound below us, like someone closing a door downstairs.

"Show me where _The Book of Thoth _is," I ordered Doughboy. "Now, before I chop you into a hundred pieces and throw them into the _Duat_."

"Ah, _Mastery of the Five Elements_!"

"Is that the one we want?" Carter asked.

"No, but a good one. How to tame the five essential elements of the universe—earth, air, water, fire, and cheese!"

"Cheese?"

He scratched his wax head. "I'm pretty sure that's the fifth, yes. But moving right along!"

We turned to the next shelf. "No," he announced "No. Boring. Boring. Oh, Clive Cussler! No. No."

I was about to give up home when he said, "There."

Carter froze. "Where—here?"

"The blue book with the gold trim," he said. "The one that's—"

Carter pulled it out and the entire room began to shake.

"—trapped," Doughboy continued.

Sadie squawked urgently and took flight. Something clashed with it in midair, the black thing disappeared down her throat.

I grabbed Doughboy as alarms blared. "You idiot!"

More black forms dropped from the ceiling and seemed to multiply in the air. "There's your answer," Doughboy told us. "_Desjardins _would want to summon fruit bats. You mess with the wrong books, you trigger a plague of fruit bats. That's the trap!"

The things were diving at my face, clawing my arms. I could hardly see.  
>"Sadie, get out of here!" Carter yelled.<p>

"SAW!" she cried.

Carter turned into a falcon. People were yelling in French, the doors rattled. He looked at me expectantly.

"Go!" I yelled. He flew out of the window. "Ha-tep!" I yelled. The hieroglyph blazed white in the air. The bats flew up to the ceiling and nested there, and there was no more yelling or banging at the other end of the library door. I quickly blasted the door with ice, no one was getting in her anytime soon, and I froze the bats in their place.

I ran from the opposite side of the room and ran out the window, I did a couple of flips and landed on the pavement easily.

"The Louvre." I said. "It has the closest portal." They seemed to recover from me jumping out of a window and landing on my feet.

We ran as the doors blasted open. I could feel the heat from the blast on my blast. We kept running.

I grinned like a madwoman. "Whoo!" I screamed. This was the most fun I've had in a long time. Even though I was running for my life down the rue des Pyramides, I was used to it.

**Please review! It helps me write more. **

**Even if it is just something like this: **_WRITE MORE!_

**I plan to have this story go through the rest of the PJO, Kane Chronicles, and HoO. **


	4. Chapter IV

_**Chapter IV**_

**Sadie**

So, I'd been to the Louvre once before on holiday, but I hadn't been chased by vicious French-magicians. I would've been terrified, except I was too busy being angry with Carter. I couldn't believe the way he'd treated my bird problem. Honestly, I thought I would be a kite _forever_, suffocating inside a little feathery prison. And he had the nerve to make fun!

I promised myself I'd get revenge, but for the time being we had enough worries staying alive. And Katya was laughing like a madwoman. She threw her head back and laughed, like this was a thrill ride. That girl was mad I tell you.

We raced along in the cold rain. It was all I could do to avoid slipping on the slick pavements. I glanced back and saw two figures chasing us—men with shaved heads and goatees and black raincoats. They might've passed for normal mortals except they carried a glowing staff. Not a good sign.

My stomach still felt queasy from eating one of the little pests when I was a kite—and no, that had _not _been my idea. Totally a defensive instinct!

"Sadie," Bast called as we ran. "You have only seconds to open the portal."

"Where is it?" I yelled.

We dashed across the rue de Rivoli into a wide plaza surrounded by the wings of the Louvre. Bast made straight for the glass pyramid at the entrance, glowing in the dusk.

"You can't be serious," I said. "That isn't a _real_ pyramid."

"Of course it's real," Bast said. "The _shape _gives a pyramid its power. It's a ramp to the heavens."

We arrived at the base of the pyramid. The plaza was thankfully empty. The last thing I wanted was my embarrassing death by fruit bats posted on Youtube.

"One minute till sundown," Katya warned. All the laughter gone from her face. "Our last chance for summoning is _now_."

_Where do you wish to go? _Isis said in my mind.

_God, I don't care! America!_

I realized I was crying. Katya wouldn't cry. I realized that I kind of looked up to my older cousin. She was always so calm and collected, to many times I let my emotions get away from me.

_America, _I thought. _Now!_

My burst of energy must've had some effect. The pyramid trembled. Its glass walls shimmered and the top of the structure began to glow.

A swirling vortex appeared, all right. Only problem: it was hovering above the very top of the pyramid.

"Climb!" Bast said. Easy for her—she was a cat.

"The side is too steep!" Carter objected.

"I'll toss you," Bast said.

"Excuse me?" Carter protested, but she picked him up by his collar and pants and tossed him up the side of the pyramid. He skittered to the top in a very undignified manner and slipped straight through the portal. Katya just jumped half way up the top of the pyramid then ran up the rest of the way.

"Now you, Sadie," Bast said. "Come one!"

Before I could move, a man's voice yelled, "Stop!"

Stupidly, I froze. The voice was so powerful, it was hard not to.

The two magicians were approaching. The taller one spoke in perfect English: "Surrender, Miss Kane, and return our master's property."

"Sadie don't listen," Bast warned. "Come here."

"The cat goddess deceives you," the magician said. "She abandoned her post. She endangered us all. She will lead you to your ruin."

I could tell he meant it. He was absolutely convinced of what he said.

I turned to Bast. Her expression had changed. She looked wounded, even grief-stricken.

"What does he mean?" I said. "What did you do wrong?"

"We have to leave," she warned. "Or they will kill us."

I looked at the portal. Carter and Katya were already through. That decided it. I wasn't going to be separated from them. As annoying as he was, Carter was one of the only people I had left. And Katya couldn't keep Carter from being killed all by herself.

"Toss me," I said.

Bast grabbed me. "See you in America." Then she chucked me up the side of her pyramid.

I heard the magician roar, "Surrender!" And an explosion rattled the glass next to my head. Then I plunged into the hot vortex of sand.

**Katya**

I woke up in a small with industrial carpeting, gray walls, and metal-framed windows. I felt as if I were inside a high-tech refrigerator. I sat up groggily and discovered I was coated in cold, wet sand.

"_Ugh_," I heard. "Where are we?" That was Sadie.

Carter and Bast stood by the window. Apparently they'd been conscious for a while, because they'd both brushed themselves off.

"You've got to see this view," Carter said. I got up shakily, but soon I was able to walk fine.

An entire city spread out below us—I mean _far _below, well over a hundred meters. I could almost believe we were still in Paris, because a river curved off to our left, and the land was mostly flat. There were white government buildings clustered around networks of parks and circular roads, all spread out under a winter sky. But the light was wrong. It was still afternoon here, so we must've traveled west. And as my eyes made their way to the other end of a long rectangular green space, I found myself staring at the White House.

"Is that… the White House?" Sadie asked.

Carter nodded. "You got us to America, all right. Washington D.C"

"But we're sky high!"

Bast chuckled. "You didn't specify any particular American city, did you?"

"Well… no."

"You got the default portal for the U.S.—the largest single source of Egyptian power in North America," I said.

Sadie stared at me uncomprehendingly.

"The largest obelisk ever constructed," Bast said. "The Washington Monument."

Sadie moved away from the window. Carter grabbed her shoulder and helped her sit down.

"You should rest," I said. "You were out for two hours."

"And thirty-two minutes," Bast finished. "I'm sorry, Sadie. Opening more than one portal a day _is _extremely taxing, even with Isis helping."

Carter frowned, "But we need her to do it again, right? It's not sunset here yet. We can still use portals. Let's open one and get to Arizona. That's where Set is."

I shook my head. "Sadie can't open another portal. It would overextend her powers. And that's not a good idea if you plan to go to battle Set right after. And none of us have the talent to do so, we'll have to use mortal transportation."

"Now, let's have a picnic!" She snapped her fingers the air shimmered, and a pile of Friskies cans and two jugs of milk appeared on the carpet.

"_Um_," Carter said, "can you conjure any people food?"

Bast blinked. "Well, no accounting for taste."

The air shimmered again. A plate of grilled cheese sandwiches and chips appeared, along with a six-pack of coke.

"Yum," Sadie said.

Carter muttered something under his breath as I pulled some ambrosia out of my pack. I took a nibble off the corner, savoring the taste of my father's hot chocolate then putting it into my knapsack. I picked up the grilled cheese and wished we had plates from Camp Half-Blood. Grilled cheese was not my favorite. But I ate it, it might be the last meal I ever had, so I stuffed my face.

"We should leave soon," he said in between bites. "I mean tourists and all."

Bast shook her head. "The Washington Monument closes at six o'clock. The tourists are gone now. We might as well stay the night. If we must travel during the Demon Days, best to do it in daylight hours."

We were all exhausted, we didn't talk again until we finished our food. And even then all Carter did was ask for Bast to stop licking her hands. I fell asleep against the gray walls.

**Sadie**

"What are we going to do?" I asked Carter.

"Rescue Dad. What else can we do?" He picked up his wand and turned it in his fingers. "Do you think he really meant to… you know, bring Mom back?"

I wanted to say yes. More than anything, I wanted to believe that was possible. But I found myself shaking my head. Something about it didn't seem right. "Iskandar told me something about Mum," I said. "She was a diviner. She could see the future. He said she made him think about some old ideas."

It was my first chance to tell Carter about my conversation with the old magician, so I gave him the details.

Carter knit his eyebrows. "You think that has something to do with why Mom died—she saw something in the future?"

"I don't know." I tried to think back to when I was six, but my memory was frustratingly fuzzy. "When they took us to England the last time, did she and Dad seem like they were in a hurry—like they were doing something really important?"

"Definitely."

"Would you say freeing Bast was really important? I mean—I love her, of course—but _worth dying for _important?"

Carter hesitated. "Probably not."

"Well there you are. I think Dad and Mum were up to something bigger, something they didn't complete. Possibly that's what Dad was after at the British Museum—completing the task, whatever it was. _Making things right. _And this whole business about our family going back a billion years to some god hosting pharaohs—why didn't anyone _tell _us? Why didn't Dad?"

Carter didn't answer for a long time.

"Maybe Dad was protecting us," he said. "The House of Life doesn't trust our family, especially after what Dad and Mom did. Amos said we were raised apart for a reason, so we wouldn't, like, trigger each other's magic."

"Bloody awful reason to keep us apart," I muttered.

Carter looked at me strangely, and I realized I'd said might have been construed as a compliment.

"I just mean they should've been honest," I rushed on. "Not that I _wanted _more time with my annoying brother, of course."

He nodded seriously. "Of course."

We sat listening to the magic hum of the obelisk. I tried to remember the last time Carter and I had simply spent time like this together, talking.

"Do you remember Katya, if she was our cousin shouldn't we have known her?" I asked since I couldn't remember anything from before we were separated.

Carter furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah, I think so, she froze our Thanksgiving dinner." I laughed, it felt good to laugh again.

"I your, _um_…" I tapped the side of my head. "Your _friend _being much help?"

"Not much," he admitted. "Yours?"

I shook my head. "Carter, are you scared?"

"A little." He dug his wand into the carpet. "No, a lot."

I looked at the blue book we'd stolen—pages full of wonderful secrets I couldn't read. "What if we can't do it?"

"I don't know," he said. "That book about mastering the element of cheese would've been more helpful."

"Or summoning fruit bats."

"Please, not the fruit bats."

We shared a weary smile, and it felt rather good. But it changed nothing. We were still in deep trouble with no clear plan.

"Why don't you sleep on it?" He suggested. "You used a lot of energy today. I'll keep watch until Bast gets back."

He actually sounded concerned for me. How cute.

I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to miss anything. But I realized my eyelids _were _incredibly heavy.

"All right, then," I said. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

I lay down to sleep, but my soul—my _ba_—had other ideas.

**Please review! There are twenty-two more chapters to this volume of the story of Katya Kane. That seems like a lot, that is a lot. Happy New Years!**


	5. Chapter V

_**Chapter V**_

**Katya**

Sadie snapped awake. "Leave now!" She screamed.

Carter and Bast jumped in surprise. They were already awake, packing their things.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She told us about her _ba _trip she was frantically searching through her pockets, then her bag. She pulled out four plane tickets and a sealed envelope. I gulped, hopefully Nut would help me not be shot down by Zeus.

Bast examined the tickets. "Excellent first class serves salmon!"

"But what about Set's minion?" I asked.

I glanced out the window along with Carter. Our eyes widened. "Yeah,_ um_… it's here."

The creature prowled below the base of the monument, leaving tracks in the fallen snow. It had an unnaturally lean, muscled body with reddish gray fur. You could almost mistake it for a greyhound, except for the tail and head. The tail was reptilian, forked at the end with triangular points, like squid tentacles. The creature's head was the strangest, he had ears that stood straight up like a rabbit but shaped like cones and they rotated almost three hundred and sixty degrees so they could hear anything, the snout was long and curved like an anteater's—but anteaters don't have razor sharp teeth.

"Its eyes are glowing," Carter said. "That can't be good."

"How can you see that far?" Sadie demanded.

They stood next to each other looking out at the tiny figure in the snow. The monster was at least five hundred feet below us.

"You still have the sight of a falcon," Bast guessed. "And you're right, Carter. The glowing eyes—"

"It's caught our scent."

I looked back at her and almost laughed. Her hair was sticking straight up.

"_Um_, Bast?" Carter asked.

"What?"

The three of us exchanged looks. Sadie mouthed the word _scared_. _Cat goddess, right, _I thought.

"Nothing," Carter said. "How do we get out of here?"

"You don't understand," Bast said. "The Set animal is the perfect hunter. If it has our scent, there is no stopping it."

"Why is it called the 'Set animal'?" Sadie asked nervously. "Doesn't it have a name?"

"If it did," Bast said, "you would not want to speak it. It is merely known as the Set animal—the Red Lord's symbolic creature. It shares his strength, cunning…and his evil nature."

"Lovely," Sadie said.

The animal sniffed at the monument and recoiled, snarling.

At that moment I knew what I had to do. "Sadie, Carter, turn into birds. Now!" I said as the Set animal started climbing up the side of the monument. They looked like they were going to argue but a look from me silenced them. "Fly out this window," I said smashing the other window with the hilt of my sword. "Bast, follow them."

"What about you?" Sadie cried.

"I'll hold it off."

"But—" One look from me silenced them. I nodded at Bast and she nodded back.

"I'll see you at the airport. Don't wait up if I'm late. Remember, your one goal is to save the world. Your father, he might not be the same." And with that I pushed them out the window.

"You are a strong warrior," said Bast. "I wish you the best. And thank you." I knew she was not used to thanking people, which made it even more special. She jumped out the window.

I turned to the other window, I had an idea. A stupid idea, but an idea. I jumped out the window. I was falling head first knocking into the Set animal. We fought on our way down, it clawed and bit at me, I sliced with my sword. I focused on my powers and right before I hit the ground a huge pile of snow breaking my fall and my rib. The creature stood. It looked dazed and confused. My idea worked, it was from the desert—no way would he like the snow.

I pushed myself up off the ground. My broken rib ached at the strain. The Set animal looked as if it wanted to fight but couldn't. I raised my sword and brought it down on the monster. I looked up from the sand that tainted the white snow. My rib ached, I lost my knapsack in the fall. My knees gave out from under me and my chin hid the pavement. I pulled myself to my knees my face was covered in gravel from the face-plant.

A shadow flew across the ground and I looked to the sky immediately on my guard. My grip tightened on my sword. Then a horse landed swiftly in front of me. No, not a horse a Pegasus.

"Blackjack," I gasped. He neighed proudly. He lent his head down to me. I looked at him curiously. He rolled his eyes at me. Percy was right, he did have an attitude, I didn't have to hear him to know.

I hugged him, it felt so good not to depend on only myself. A tear escaped my eye. He stomped a little in a rush.

"Sorry," I said. He threw me onto his back with his snout. "_Whoa_, hold on. I need my knapsack."

He walked around the monument and found my knapsack he picked it up with his teeth and tossed it back to me. I leaned my body against his neck, and wrapped my arms around it.

He took off, I knew the airplane was already gone, so I told Blackjack to go straight to Memphis.

**Sadie**

I felt awful. We had left Katya to die because we weren't capable of handling a stupid demon animal. _We don't know that she's actually dead, _I told myself. _She probably is! _Another part of my brain yelled. _You left her to die. _The voices in my head made me feel even worse. I cried, when Carter and Bast were asleep.

_You can't do anything about it. It was her choice, she knew she probably wasn't coming back alive. She might've had an idea. She is still alive. _My thoughts battled each other as I drifted off to sleep.

**Katya**

It took me six hours to get from New York to Memphis. Riding a horse, with a broken rib. I knew the flight Sadie, Carter, and Bast were on only took two hours and I was hopelessly behind. I told Blackjack to go to Phoenix, hoping that Sadie and Carter would make it. If not, it was up to me. Blackjack was getting tired at the fourth hour of our twelve hour flight. I asked him if he wanted to stop but he ignored me and kept going. I was too tired to argue. So I rested his head against his neck and tried to ignore the pain in my rib. It became increasingly hard to keep my eyes open and eventually I let them close.

**Change of plans! I take it back there are not twenty-two more chapters. I honestly don't know how may are left since I have no idea what I'm going to do with everything except for the major things. Like defeating Set. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter VI

_**Chapter VI**_

**Katya**

I didn't like not knowing where my friends were. Yes, I said friends, even though we only met a couple days ago, what we've been through it was hard not to call them friends.

The ambrosia I ate was finally kicking in and I could sit up straight. I flew over the New Mexican desert, I was thirsty, I had ran out of water hours ago, and food. I tried to get Blackjack to stop but the horse was as stubborn as a mule or he couldn't understand me. An idea came to me, and I cursed myself for not thinking it sooner.

"Med-wah," my voice croaked. The hieroglyph for "Speak" blazed in the air. Blackjack's eyes widened and he tried to fly around it but it vanished.

"What?" I heard Blackjack ask.

"Blackjack, we have to stop. I need water and you need to rest, even for a few minutes."

"No way, Jose," he said.

"I'm not Jose," I said alerting him that I could understand.

"You can hear me?"

"Yeah, now land us at a gas station. I need water and you need rest."

"Sure thing, She-Boss."

"She-Boss?" I asked.

"Yeah, Boss is Boss, and you're She-Boss." Then I remembered that Percy said that's what he called him.

We landed at a Phillips 66.

"Get me doughnuts!" Said Blackjack.

"Sure thing!" I said. Blackjack waited as I went in and bought two bottles of water and two doughnuts for Blackjack with the wad of cash I put in my pack. I went back outside and got back on Blackjack and we took off.

"How did you find me?" I asked Blackjack.

"Boss told me to keep an eye on you, looked like you needed road side assistance."

"You won't tell him what I've been doing will you?"

"Nope, She-Boss."

We crossed over into Arizona and about an hour later I saw something. The Egyptian Queen flying crazily through the sky. I grinned widely.

"Blackjack! Fly over to that boat. I need to get on it. I'll jump off and you can leave. Make sure you're not seen."

"Right," he flew up to the side of the boat and I hopped on.

"See ya, Blackjack!" I yelled after him.

"Katya!" Sadie exclaimed almost letting an unconscious Zia fly off. I hold of a bar for support.

"Carter help your girlfriend, I got this!" I yelled, Carter wasn't happy about me calling Zia his girlfriend, but he looked glad to get rid of the steering job.

I shifted the tiller, I was doing a better job than Carter, but that wasn't saying much. _Come on, Katya. You've held the sky. You can do this. _I told myself, it wasn't much to go on but I managed to keep in front of the thing following us behind us. Not that it stopped it from hurling flaming balls at us. I tried to veer the boat to the right, but the fireball still grazed the port side.

I looked for a safe place to land but all that was there was subdivisions and office parks.

"Die, enemies of Ra!" Sekhmet yelled. "Perish in agony!"

I took another evasive turn and Zia yelled, "There!"

She pointed towards a well-lit factory complex with trucks, warehouses, and silos. A giant chili pepper was painted on the side of the biggest warehouse, and a floodlit sign read: **MAGIC SALSA, INC. **

"Oh, please," Sadie said. "It's not really magic! That's just a name."

"No," Zia insisted. "I've got an idea."

"Those Seven Ribbons?" Carter guessed. "The ones you used on Serqet?"

Zia shook her head. "They can only be summoned once a year. But my plan—"

Another arrow blazed past us, only inches from our starboard sign.

"Hang on!" I yanked the tiller and spun the boat upside down just before the arrow exploded. The hull shielded us from the brunt of the blast, but the entire bottom of the ship was now on fire, and we were going down.

With my last bit of control, I aimed the boat toward the roof of the warehouse, and we crashed through, slamming into a huge mound of… something crunchy.

I clawed my way clear of the boat and sat up in a daze. Fortunately, the stuff we'd crashed into was soft. Unfortunately, it was a twenty-foot pile of chili peppers, and the boat had set them on fire. My eyes began to sting, but I knew better than to rub them, because my hands were now covered in chili oil.

"Sadie?" Carter called. "Zia?"

"Help!" Sadie yelled. She was on the other side of the boat, dragging Zia out from under the flaming hull. We managed to pull her free and slide down the pile onto the floor.

The warehouse seemed to be a massive facility for drying peppers, with thirty or forty mountains of chilies and rows of wooden drying racks. The wreckage of our boat filled the air with spicy smoke, and through the hole we'd made in the roof, I could see the blazing figure of Sekhmet descending.

We ran, plowing through another pile of peppers. We hid behind a drying rack, where shelved of peppers made the air burn like hydrochloric acid.

I'm really starting to dislike chili peppers. Sekhmet landed, and the warehouse floor shuddered. Up close, she was even more terrifying. Her skin glowed like liquid gold, and her chest armor and skirt seemed to be woven tiles made from molten lava. Her hair was like a thick lion's mane. Her eyes were feline, but they didn't sparkle like Bast's or betray any kindness or humor. Sekhmet's eyes blazed like her arrows, designed only to seek and destroy. She was beautiful the way an atomic explosion is beautiful.

"I smell blood!" Roared Sekhmet. "I will feast on enemies of Ra until my belly is full!"

"Charming," Sadie whispered. "So Zia… this plan?"

Zia didn't look so well. She was shivering and pale, and seemed to have trouble focusing on us. "When Ra… when he first called Sekhmet to punish humans because they were rebelling against him… she got out of hand."

"Hard to imagine," Carter whispered, as Sekhmet ripped through the burning wreckage of our boat.

"She started killing _everyone_," Zia said, "not just the wicked. None of the other gods could stop her. She would just kill all day until she was gorged on blood. Then she'd leave until the next day. So the people begged the magicians to come up with a plan, and—"

"You dare hide?" Flames roared as Sekhmet's arrows destroyed pile after pile of dried peppers. "I will roast you alive!"

"Run now," I decided. "Talk later."

Carter and I dragged Zia between us while Sadie led the way. We managed to get out of the warehouse just before the whole place exploded from the heat, billowing a spicy-hot mushroom cloud into the sky. The heat blasted my back, I hate heat. We ran through a parking lot filled with semitrailers and hid behind a six wheeler.

I peeked out from behind the truck, hoping to see Sekhmet wailing and dying in the flames, no such luck. Instead she jumped from the wreckage in the form of a giant lion. Blazing over her head was a disk of fire like a miniature sun.

"The symbol of Ra," Zia whispered.

"Where are you, my tasty morsels?" She opened her maw and breathed a blast of hot air across the parking lot. Wherever her breath touched, the asphalt melted, cars disintegrated into sand, and the parking lot turned into a barren desert.

"How did she do that?" Sadie hissed.

"Her breath creates the deserts," Zia said. "That is the legend."

"Better and better." Carter muttered. We were done for, unless we thought of a plan. _So think! _I yelled at myself.

"I'll distract her. You two run—"

"No," Zia insisted. "There is another way." She pointed at a row of silos on the other side of the lot. Each one was three stories tall and maybe twenty feet in diameter, with a giant chili pepper painted on the side.

"Petrol tanks?" Sadie asked.

"No," I said. "It's probably salsa."

Sadie stared at me blankly. "Isn't that a type of music?"

"It's a hot sauce," Carter said. "That's what they make here."

Sekhmet breathed in our direction, and the three trailers next to us melted into sand. We scuttled sideways and jumped behind a cinder block. I really did not want to become sand, I hate sand.

"Listen," Zia gasped, her face beading with sweat. I wondered why she was over-heating if she was a fire magician. "When the people needed to stop Sekhmet, they got huge vats of beer and colored them bright red with pomegranate juice."

"Yeah, I remember now," Carter interrupted. "They told Sekhmet it was blood, and she drank until she passed out. Then Ra was able to call her into the heavens. They transformed her into something gentler. A cow goddess or something?"

"Hathor," I said. "That is Sekhmet's other form. The flip side of her personality."

Sadie shook her head in disbelief. "So you're saying we offer to buy Sekhmet a few pints, and she'll turn into a cow."

"Not exactly," Zia said. "But salsa is red, is it not?"

We skirted the factory grounds as Sekhmet chewed up trucks and blasted he swathes of the parking lot to sand.

"I hate this plan," Sadie grumbled behind me.

"Just keep her occupied for a few seconds," Carter said. "And don't die."

"Yeah, that's the hard bit, isn't it?"

"One…" I counted. "Two… three!"

Sadie burst into the open and used her favorite spell: "_Ha-di_!"

The glyphs blazed over Sekhmet's head.

And everything around her exploded. Trucks burst into pieces. The air shimmered with energy. The ground heaved upward, creating a crater fifty feet deep into which the lioness tumbled.

It was pretty impressive, but I didn't have time to admire the destruction. I ran towards the salsa tanks.

"RRAAAARR!" Sekhmet leaped out of the crater and breathed desert-breath in Sadie's direction. But Sadie was long gone. She ran sideways, ducking behind trailers and releasing a few lengths of magical rope as she fled. The ropes whipped through the air and tangled themselves against the lioness' mouth. They failed, of course, but they worked wonders at annoying the Destroyer.

"Show yourself!" Sekhmet raged. "I will feast on your flesh!"

Perched on the silo, Carter turned from falcon to avatar. His glowing form was so heavy he left foot size holes in the top of the silo.

"Sekhmet!" He yelled.

The lioness whirled and snarled, trying to locate his voice.

"Up here, kitty!" He called.

She spotted him and her ears went back. "Horus?"

"Unless you know another guy with a falcon head."

She padded back and forth uncertainly, then roared in challenge. "Why do you speak to me when I am in my raging form? You know I must destroy everything in my path, even you!"

"If you must," Carter said. "But first, you might like to feast on the blood of your enemies!"

He drove his sword into the tank and salsa gushed out in a chunky red waterfall. I leaped to the next tank and sliced it open. I leaped to the other silo and sliced it open. Carter and I took turns destroying Magic Salsa silos.

"Ha, ha!" Sekhmet loved it. She leaped into the red sauce torrent, rolling in it, lapping it up. "Blood. Lovely blood!"

Apparently lions aren't too bright, or their taste buds aren't very developed, because Sekhmet didn't stop until her stomach was bulging and her mouth literally began to smoke.

"Tangy," she said, stumbling and blinking. "But my eyes hurt. What kind of blood is this? Nubian? Persian?"

"Jalapeño," I said. "Try some more. It gets better."

Her ears were smoking too now as she tried to drink more of the red hot salsa. Her eyes watered and she staggered.

"I…" Steam curled from her mouth. "Hot… hot mouth…"

"Milk is good for that," Carter suggested. "Maybe if you were a cow."

"Trick," Sekhmet groaned. "You… you tricked…"

But her eyes were too heavy. She turned in a circle and collapsed, curling into a ball. Her form twitched and shimmered as her red armor melted into her golden skin, until I was looking down at an enormous sleeping cow.

Carter and I dropped of the silos and stepped carefully around the sleeping goddess. She was making cow snoring sounds, like "_Moo-zzz, moo-zzz_." Carter waved his hand in front of her face, and when he was convinced she was out cold, he dispelled his avatar. Sadie and Zia emerged from behind a trailer.

"Well," said Sadie, "that was different."

"You two did wonderfully," Zia said to Carter and Sadie, knowing full well that I was not looking for her approval. "But your boat is damaged. How do we get to Phoenix?"

"_We?_" Sadie said. "I don't recall inviting you."

Zia's face turned salsa red. "Surely you don't _still _think I led you into a trap?"

"I don't know," Sadie said. "Did you?"

I couldn't believe I was hearing this. Neither could Carter from the look on his face.

"Sadie," his voice sounded dangerously angry. "Lay _off_. Zia summoned that pillar-of-fire thing. She sacrificed her magic to save us. And she told us how to beat the lioness. We need her."

Sadie stared at Carter. She glanced back and forth between Zia, Carter, and me, probably trying to judge how far she could push things.

"Fine." She crossed her arms and pouted. "But we need to find Amos first."

"No!" Zia said. "That would be a very bad idea."

"Oh, so we can trust you, but not Amos?"

Zia hesitated. I had a feeling that was _exactly_ what she meant. The thing was, why? Amos practically raised me, I knew him better than anyone, he survived Sekhmet, and he was completely trustworthy, unless he wasn't completely himself.

Sadie huffed. "So how do we get to Phoenix? Walk?"

I gazed across the parking lot, where one sixteen-wheeler was still intact. "Come on," I said running towards the truck.

"What are you doing?" Carter asked, as I got in the driver's seat. I leaned down to remove the panel that covered the wires I could use to hotwire the car.

"Get in," I said as the engine revved to life.

"Brilliant!" Sadie exclaimed.

My feet could barely reach the petals but I could still drive. I hit the gas and we sailed west on I-10.

**Please review!**


	7. Chapter VII

_**Chapter VII**_

**Katya**

Sadie sat up front with me, wanting to give the two love-birds a little space. I kept my eyes on the road while Sadie twiddled her thumbs.

"So," she began turning in her seat to face me. "How'd you get away from the Set animal?"

"After you left I jumped out of the window—"

"You what?" She exclaimed.

"I jumped out the window, dragging the Set animal down with me. I made a huge pile of snow at the last minute and it mostly broke my fall but I broke a rib. The Set animal was dazed and confused by the snow I killed it. I got a friend to bring me to the Egyptian Queen."

"You make it sound easy," Sadie said.

"I've been fighting monsters like that one my whole life, its second nature to me." Sadie was quiet after that, pondering what I'd said.

**Sadie**

It was hard to think that Katya never had a normal life. She was the one who most deserved it. Then I realized I barely knew anything about her, but it felt like we knew each other forever.

"How old are you, exactly?" I asked. I seemed to make her uncomfortable. Oh, well. I would like to know the person I'm about to (hopefully) save the world with.

"Fourteen. What about you?"

"Twelve," I don't know why I felt embarrassed. Maybe because she was so collected, and mature and I was just… me. "Where do you go to school?" I asked.

"I don't go to school," that just made things more awkward. I wanted to know about the girl I was starting to look up to.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

She froze. "No."

"Do you like anyone?"

"No."

"Do you even know any guys?" I asked.

"Yes, they're my best friends. I don't like Percy or Grover that way." I felt that was the end of the one-sided conversation. So we sat in silence.

**Katya **

A light rain pattered against the windows and I turned on the windshield wipers. Then a figure appeared in the light of my headlights.

I hit the brakes quickly, stopping right in front of the figure. It was Amos. I ran out of the car, "Amos!" I hugged him tightly. He hugged me back. "What happened?" I asked pulling away.

"I distracted Sekhmet," he said putting a finger through one of the holes in his coat, "for about eleven seconds. I'm glad to see you survived."

"There was a salsa factory," Carter started to explain, but Amos held up his hand.

"Time for explanations later," he said. "Right now we have to get going."

He pointed northwest, and I saw what he meant. The storm was way worse up ahead. A _lot _worse. A wall of black dotted out the night sky, the mountains, the highway, as if it would swallow the whole world.

"Set's storm is gathering," Amos said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Shall we drive into it?"

I crowed, and jumped into the air, like the way Peter Pan does and ran back into the car.

"Why is it she only gets excited when we're doing something dangerous?" I heard Sadie mumble.

**Two chapters in one day! Man, am I proud of myself. Though this one is short, it was the size of the chapter in the book, and that's what I'm going on. Seven more chapters left of this volume. I'm serious this time. Then after that is **_**Katya Kane and the Battle of the Labyrinth. **_**Can't wait to get some Camp Half-Blood action in.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	8. Chapter VIII

**Please review! Go to **** battling_set/set?id=145144159&lid=4154215 for the outfit Katya wore to battle Set.**

_**Chapter VIII**_

**Katya**

I sat in the passenger seat of the sixteen-wheeler next to Amos. Zia and Carter were talking in the back, and Sadie was sleeping on the bed.

I sat there thinking. Kronos was rising, how would we stop him? How would we stop Set? I think Sadie and Carter had that at least a little bit figured out. The best thing I could do was protect them. And Kronos? He'll just have to wait until after I deal with The Red Lord, then I'll get to the Lord of Time.

I went into a gas station with Amos and Carter. The cashier looked at us oddly, probably because I looked nothing like them, my pale skin mostly, or the fact that we arrived in a **MAGIC SALSA **truck.

I grabbed some barbecue chips and bought them with my last bit of money, while Amos and Carter asked for directions. I stored them in my bag for later. I pulled my gray hoodie tighter around me and fiddled with my ankh ring. I walked back out to the truck. I got in and let out a breath. Time to go defeat an all-powerful being, just another day for me, then.

We drove on. Less than a mile from Camelback Mountain, we broke through into circle of perfect calm.

"Eye of the storm," Carter said.

It was unnerving. All around the mountain swirled a cylinder of black clouds. Traces of smoke drifted back and forth from Camelback's peak to the edges of the maelstrom like the spokes of a wheel, but directly above us, the sky was clear and starry, beginning to turn gray. Sunrise wasn't far off. We were running out of time.

The streets were empty. Mansions and hotels clustered round the mountain's base, completely dark; but the mountain itself glowed. Ever hold your hand over a flashlight and watch the way your skin glow red? That was what it looked like: something very bright and hot was trying to burn through the rock.

"Nothing's moving on the streets," Zia said. "If we try to drive up the mountain—"

"We'll be seen," I interrupted.

"What about that spell?" Carter looked at Zia. "You know… the one you used in the First Nome."

"What spell?" Sadie asked.

Zia shook her head. "Carter is referring to an invisibility spell. But I have no magic. And unless you have the proper components, it can't be done on a whim."

"Amos?" Sadie asked.

He pondered the question, "No invisibility, I'm afraid. But I have an another idea.

He turned us into storm clouds. Imagine your hands and feet disappearing, turning into wisps of wind. Imagine your body replaced by dust and vapor, and having a tingling in your stomach without even _having _a stomach. Imagine having to concentrate just to keep yourself from dissipating.

Sadie and I were so angry lightning crackled inside me.

"Don't be that way," Amos chided. "It's only for a few minutes."

He melted into a darker, heavier bit of storm and raced up the mountain. I imagined myself filling with helium and I was off.

I couldn't see much, only feelings of what was around me. What I did "see" was scattered and fuzzy. As if seeing through static.

I followed Amos to the side of the mountain. I returned to human form and landed unsteadily on my feet.

Sadie landed on Carter. "Ouch," Carter groaned.

"Sorry," Sadie offered.

I was concentrating on not getting sick, my stomach felt like it was still storm.

Zia and Amos stood next to us, peeping into a crevice between two large sandstone boulders. Red light seeped within and made their faces look devilish.

Zia turned to us. Judging from her expression, what she'd seen wasn't good. "Only the pyramidion left." This was bad.

"The what?" Sadie asked looking through the crevice. The entire mountain was hollowed out, just as Carter had said. The cavern floor was about six hundred meters below us. Fires blazed everywhere, bathing the walls in blood-colored light. A giant crimson pyramid dominated the cave, and at its base, masses of demons milled about as if at a rock concert waiting for the show to begin. High above them, eye-level to us, two magic barges manned by crews of demons floated slowly, ceremoniously towards the pyramid. Suspended in a mash of ropes between the boats was the only piece of the pyramid not installed—a golden capstone to top of the structure.

"They know they've won," Carter guessed. "They're making a show of it."

"Yes," Amos said. There was nothing that I wanted more than to go and knock some heads with those demons. Wow, I sound like a daughter of Ares.

"Well, let's blow up the boats or something!" Sadie said. _Yes! That's the spirit, _I thought.

Amos looked at her. "Is _that _your strategy, honestly?"

His tone wasn't like Amos', it was like it was meant to make her feel stupid. I put my hand on her shoulder as she looked down at the demon army.

"We have to try," Carter said. "Dad's in there."

"Right," Sadie said. "We fly to those boats. We stop them placing the capstone—"

"Pyramidion," Zia corrected.

"Whatever. Then we fly into the pyramid and find Dad."

"And when Set tries to stop you?" Amos asked.

She glanced at Zia, who was silently warning me not to say more.

"First things first," I said. "How do we fly to the boats?"

"As a storm," Amos suggested.

"No!" the rest of us said.

"I will not be part of more chaos magic," Zia insisted. "It is _not _natural." She was right, something didn't feel right about chaos magic.

Amos waved at the spectacle below us. "Tell me _this _is natural. You have another plan?"

"Birds," Sadie said. "I'll become a kite. Carter can do a falcon."

"Sadie," Carter warned, "what if—"

"I have to try." She looked away. "Zia, it's been almost ten hours since your pillar of fire, hasn't it? Still no magic?"

Zia held out her hand and concentrated. At first, nothing happened. Then red light flickered along her fingers, and her staff appeared in her grip, still smoking.

"Good timing," Carter said.

"Also bad timing," I observed. "It means Desjardins in no longer pursued by the pillar of fire. He'll be here soon, and I'm sure he'll bring backup. More enemies for us."

"My magic will still be weak," Zia warned. "I won't be much help in a fight, but I can perhaps summon a ride." She brought out the vulture pendant she used at Luxor.

"Which leaves me and Katya," Amos said. "No worries there. Let's meet on the left boat. We'll take that one out, then deal with the right. And let's hope for surprise."

"Right," Sadie said. "We'll have to finish the boats off quickly, then head into the pyramid itself. Perhaps we can seal off the entrance or something."

"I'll stay out and fight the demons on the other side," I said.

"No! We won't let you sacrifice yourself again," Carter said.

"Who said I would be sacrificing anything?" I mocked.

Carter nodded, "Ready."

"Let's do this," I said.

The plan started out all right. We all got to the boat easy enough. The axe headed demon in front of my looked up in alarm then I stuck my sword straight through him. A mad grin spread across my face. Wow, I probably looked like a madwoman. I kept killing the demons until none of them were left on the boat.

Amos began to chant and point his staff towards the other boat, where the demons just realized we were there.

One of them was tall and very thin, with black eyes, and a face like muscle with the skin peeling away.

"That's Set's lieutenant," Carter warned. "Face of Horror."

"You!" the demon screamed. "Get them!"

Amos finished his spell. "Smoke," he intoned.

Instantly, the second boat evaporated into gray mist. The demons fell screaming. The golden capstone plummeted until the lines attached to it from our side yanked taut, and our boat nearly flipped over. Canted sideways, we began to sink towards the cavern floor.

"Carter, cut the lines!" Sadie screamed. Carter and I cut the ropes with our swords and the Pyramidion hurtled toward the cavern floor. The boat leveled out, and rose several meters in an instant and leaving my stomach behind.

"So far so good," Carter noted, but as usual, he'd spoken too soon.

Zia pointed below us. "Look."

All those demons who had wings—a small percentage, but still a good forty or fifty—had launched themselves towards us, filling the air like a swarm of angry hornets.

"Fly to the pyramid," I said. "I'll distract the demons."  
>"Wait—"Sadie started, but I jumped off the boat before she could finish. I slid down a ramp of ice like Frozone from The Incredibles blasting as many demons as I could and skewering any that came too close.<p>

I forgot how much I missed a good battle. Skewering any monsters in sight, freezing them in their place, good times, good times.

I lost count of how many demons I killed, then the House of Life showed up, and they started fighting with me, instead of against me. I zoned out—kill, kill, dodge, swing, kill—that was the only thing on my mind, survive.

Then I heard something from behind the locked doors. "I am Carter Kane," the voice was a perfect balance between Carter and Horus. "Blood of the Pharaohs, Eye of Horus. And now, Set—brother, uncle, traitor—I'm going to crush you like a gnat."

I almost cheered for joy, but I kept myself focused on the battle on this side. It was a fight to the death every time, and it felt great.


	9. Chapter IX

_**Chapter IX**_

**Carter**

I stood uneasily on the slope. My avatar shimmered with damage along the right arm, and my own arm was cut and bleeding in the same spot. Set rose, wiping black blood from his mouth.

He grinned at me, and his face flickered with the snarl of a predator. "You can die knowing you made a good effort, Horus. But it's much too late. Look."

I gazed out over the cavern, and my heart crawled in my throat. The army of demons had engaged a new enemy in battle. Magicians—dozens of them—had appeared in a loose circle around the pyramid and were fighting their way forward. Katya was in the middle of all the demons, they kept coming at her in ones of pairs, either way they were no match for her. She was a killing machine, it was almost scary to watch. She was doing fine, The House of Life, not so much. The House must have gathered all its available forces, but they were pathetically few against Set's legions. Each magician stood inside a moving protective circle, like a spotlight beam, wading through the enemy with staff and wand glowing. Flames, lightning, and tornadoes ripped through the demon host. I spotted all kinds of summoned beasts—lions, serpents, sphinxes, and even some hippos charging through the enemy like tanks. Here and there, hieroglyphs glowed in the air, causing explosions and earthquakes that destroyed Set's forces. But more demons just kept coming, surrounding Katya and the magicians in deeper and deeper ranks. I watched as one magician was completely overwhelmed, his circle broken in a flash of green light, and he went down under the enemy wave.

"This is the end of the House," Set said with satisfaction. "They cannot prevail as long as my pyramid stands."

The magicians seemed to know this. As they got closer, they sent fiery comets and bolts of lightning towards the pyramid; but each blast dissipated harmlessly against its stone slopes, consumed in the red haze of Set's power.

Set seemed to admire Katya, which in its way was disgusting. "Look at her go. I would've liked to have her as my host. But alas she wasn't there at the British Museum."

"Why would you want Katya as a host?"

"Can't you see it?" He asked mockingly. "She's cunning, very persuasive, and let's not forget to mention her affiliations."

I decided not to ask. Then I spotted the golden capstone. Four snake-headed giants had retrieved it and were carrying it slowly but steadily through the melee. Set's lieutenant Face of Horror shouted orders to them, lashing them with a whip to keep them moving. They pressed forward until they came to the pyramid's base and began to climb.

I charged towards them, but Set intervened in an instant, placing himself in my path.

"I don't think so, Horus," he laughed. "You won't ruin this party."

We both summoned our weapons to our hands and fought with renewed ferocity, slicing and dodging. I brought my sword down in a deadly arc, but Set ducked aside and my blasé hit stone, sending a shock wave to my whole body. Before I could recover, Set spoke a word: "_Ha-wi!_"

_Strike._

The hieroglyphs exploded in my face and sent me tumbling down the side of the pyramid.

When my vision cleared, I saw Face of Horror and the snake-headed giants far above me, lugging their golden load up the side of the monument, only a few steps from the top.

"No," I muttered. I tried to rise, but my avatar form was sluggish.

Then out of nowhere a magician catapulted into the midst of the demons and unleashed a gale of wind. Demons went flying, dropping the capstone, and the magician struck it with his staff, stopping it from sliding. The magician was Desjardins. His forked beard and robes and leopard-skin cape were singed with fire, and his eyes were full of rage. He pressed his staff against the capstone, and its golden shape began to glow; but before Desjardins could destroy it, Set rose up behind him and swung his iron rod like a baseball bat.

Desjardins tumbled, broken and unconscious, all the way down the pyramid, disappearing into the mob of demons. My heart twisted. I'd never liked Desjardins, but no one deserved a fate like that.

"Annoying," Set said. "But not affective. This is what the House of Life has reduced itself to, eh, Horus?"

I charged up the slope, and again our weapons clanged together. We fought back and forth as gray light began to seep through the cracks in the mountain above us.

Horus' keen senses told me we had about two minutes until sunrise, maybe less.

Horus' energy kept surging through me. My avatar was only mildly damaged, my attacks still swift and strong. But it wasn't enough to defeat Set, and Set knew it. He was in no hurry. With every minute, another magician went down on the battlefield, and chaos got closer to winning."

_Patience, _Horus urged. _We fought him for seven years the first time._

But I knew we didn't have seven minutes, much less seven years. I wished Sadie were here, but I could only hope she'd managed to free Dad and keep Zia and Amos safe.

That thought distracted me. Set swept his staff at my feet, and instead of jumping, I tried to back up. The blow cracked against my right ankle, knocking me off balance and sending me somersaulting down the pyramid's side.

Set laughed. "Have a nice trip!" Then he picked up the capstone.

I rose, groaning, but my feet were like lead. I staggered up the slope, but before I closed even half the distance, Set placed the capstone and completed the structure. Red light flowed down the sides of the pyramid with a sound like the world's largest base guitar, shaking the entire mountain and making my body go numb.

"Thirty seconds to sunrise!" Set yelled with glee. "And this land will be mine forever. You can't stop me alone, Horus—especially not in the desert, the source of my strength

"You're right," said a nearby voice.

I glanced over and saw Sadie rising from the air vent—radiant with multicolored light, her staff and wand glowing.

"Except Horus is _not _alone," she said. "And we're _not _going to fight you in the desert."

She struck her staff against the pyramid and shouted a name: the last words I'd ever expect her to utter as a battle cry.


	10. Chapter X

_**Chapter X**_

** Alright, I finished my writing schedule. I will update on Tuesdays and Fridays (hopefully). If not on those days it's for a really good reason. (Or a really stupid reason that I would rather not mention.) After I finish the Red Pyramid I will publish the second book of the series 'Katya Kane and the Battle of the Labyrinth'. I might give you guys another chapter today, but after that I have to go back to school. Have fun reading!**

**Katya**

Sadie slammed her staff into the ground and yelled, "Washington, D.C!"

The pyramid shook. For a moment nothing else happened. I raced through the army of demons trying to get to where Sadie was opening a portal to Washington.

Set seemed to realize what she was doing. He let out a nervous laugh. "Magic one-oh-one, Sadie Kane. You can't open a portal during the Demon Days!"

"A mortal can't," Sadie agreed. "But a goddess of magic can."

I used my ice powers to create a ramp of ice up to the top of the pyramid; extra bonus with my powers, I didn't slip on ice.

Above us, the air crackled with lightning. The top of the cavern dissolved into a churning vortex of sand as large as the pyramid.

Demons stopped fighting and looked up in horror. Magician stammered midspell, their faces slack with awe at the uphill snowboarder, and the twelve-year old goddess of magic.

The vortex was so powerful that it ripped blocks off the pyramid and sucked into the sand. And then, like a giant lid, the portal began to descend.

"No!" Set roared. He blasted the portal with flames, then turned on Sadie and hurled stones and lightning, but it was too late. The portal swallowed us up.

The world seemed to flip upside down. Then, with a sonic boom, we appeared in the cold morning air with a brilliant blue sky above us. Spread out below us were the snow-covered fields of the National Mall in Washington D.C.

The red pyramid was still intact, but cracks had appeared on the surface. The gold capstone glowed, trying to maintain its magic, but we weren't in Phoenix anymore. The pyramid had been ripped from its source of power, the desert, and in front of us loomed the default gateway for North America, the tall white obelisk that was the most powerful focal point of Ma'at on the continent: the Washington Monument.

Set screamed something at Sadie in Ancient Egyptian. I was fairly sure it wasn't a compliment.

"I will rend your limbs from their sockets!" He shouted. "I will—"

"Die?" Carter suggested. He rose behind Set and swung his sword. The blade cut into Set's armor at the ribs—not a killing blow, but enough to knock the Red God off balance and send him tumbling down the side of his pyramid. Carter bounded after him, and in the Duat I could see arcs of white energy pulsing from the Washington Monument to the Horus avatar, charging it with new power.

"The book, Sadie!" I shouted, trying not to get crushed by a giant chicken-headed Carter, and the god of evil. "Do it now!"

She must've been dazed from opening the portal, because Set understood what I was saying faster than Sadie.

"No!" the Red God shouted. He charged towards Sadie but Carter intercepted him halfway up the slope.

He grappled with Set, holding him back. The stones of the pyramid cracked and crumbled under the weight of their godly forms. All around the base of the pyramid, demons and magicians who'd been knocked unconscious were starting to stir.

I ran into the midst of the awakened demons and started fighting. As more awakened, more came after me. That didn't matter, it just made it more.

I used a mixture of ice, sword, and Divine Words to battle the demons. As the magicians came to their senses they began to fight alongside me.

"I name you Set," Sadie chanted. "I name you Evil Day." The pyramid imploded. I sent a shield of ice to protect the magicians and me.

A doorway appeared. A doorway between this world and the brilliant white abyss that would lock Set away, trapping his life force. Maybe not forever, but for a long, long time.

To complete the spell, Sadie only had to speak one more line: "Deserving no mercy, an enemy of Ma'at, you are exiled beyond the earth."

But she hesitated. The line had to have absolute conviction. The feather of truth required it.

I looked to the top of the monument, and in the Duat I saw chunks of pyramid flying skyward and the souls of demons lifted like fireworks. As Set's chaos magic dispersed, all the force that had been charged up, ready to destroy a continent, was being sucked into the clouds. And as I watched, the chaos tried to form a shape. It was like a red reflection of a cobra crimson snake at least a mile long and a hundred meters wide. It writhed in the air, trying to become solid, and I felt its rage and bitterness. This is not what I had what it had wanted. There was not enough power or chaos for its purpose. To form properly, it needed the death of millions, the wasting of an entire continent.

"Sadie!" Carter yelled. "What are you waiting for?"

He couldn't see it, I realized. No one could but me and Sadie.

Set was on his knees, writhing and cursing as white energy encircled him, pulling him towards the rift. "Lost your stomach, witch?" He bellowed. Then he glared at Carter. "You see, Horus? Isis was always a coward. She could never complete the deed!"

Carter looked at Sadie, and for a moment I saw the doubt on his face. Horus would be urging him towards a violent vengeance. She was hesitating. This is what had turned Isis and Horus against each other before.

"Carter, look." She threw the feather of truth into the sky, breaking the spell.

"No!" Carter screamed. I watched in silent shock as the spell broke.

The feather exploded into silver dust that clung to the form of the serpent, forcing it to become visible, if only for a second.

Carter's mouth fell open as the serpent writhed in the air above Washington, slowly losing power.

Next to me a voice screamed: "Wretched gods!"

I turned to see Set's minion, Face of Horror, with his fangs bared and grotesque face only inches from mine, a jagged knife raised above my head. I didn't have time to raise my sword before there was a sickening thud, and the demon froze.

Carter had thrown his sword with deadly accuracy. The demon dropped his knife, fell to his knees, and stared down at the blade that was now sheathed in his side.

He crumpled to his back, exhaling with an angry hiss. His black eyes fixed on Sadie, and he spoke in a completely different voice—a rasping, dry sound, like a reptile's belly scraping over sand. "This is not over, godling. All this I have wrought with a wisp of my voice, the merest bit of my essence wriggling from my weakened cage. Imagine what I shall do when fully formed."

He gave her a ghastly smile, and then his face went slack. A tiny line of red mist curled from his mouth—like a worm or a fresh-hatched snake—and writhed upward into the sky to join its source. The demon's body disintegrated into sand.

The Washington Monument stopped glowing. The rift closed, and the little spellbook disappeared from Sadie's hand.

Sadie moved towards Set, who was still ensnared in ropes of white energy. She'd spoken his true name, he wasn't going anywhere jjust yet.

"You both saw the serpent in the clouds," Sadie said.

"Apophis," I finished.

Carter nodded, stunned. "He was trying to break into the mortal world, using the Red Pyramid as a gateway. If its power had been unleashed…" He looked down in revulsion at the pile of sand that had once been a demon.

"Set's lieutenant—Face of Horror—he was possessed by Apophis, using him to get what he wanted."  
>"Ridiculous!" Set glared at me and struggled against his bonds. "The snake in the clouds was one of your tricks, Isis. An illusion."<p>

"You know it wasn't," Sadie said. "I could've sent you into the abyss, Set, but you saw the real enemy. Apophis was trying to break out of his prison in the Duat. His voice possessed Face of Horror. He was using you."

"No one uses me!"

Carter let his warrior form disperse. He floated to the ground and summoned his sword back to his hand. "Apophis wanted your explosion to feed _his _power, Set. As soon as he came through the Duat and found us dead, I'm betting power, Set. As soon as he came through the Duat and found us dead, I'm betting _you_ would've been his first meal. Chaos would've won."

"I _am _chaos!" Set insisted.

"Partially," Sadie said. "But you're still one of the gods. True, you're evil, faithless, ruthless, vile—"

"You make me blush, sister."

"But you're also the strongest god. In the ancient times, you were Ra's faithful lieutenant, defending his boat against Apophis. Ra couldn't have defeated the Serpent without you." I said.

"I am pretty great," Set admitted. "But Ra is gone forever, thanks to you."

"Maybe not forever," I said.

"We'll have to find him. Apophis is rising, which means we'll need all the gods to battle him. Even you," Sadie finished.

Set tested his bonds of white energy. When he found he couldn't break them, he gave us a crooked smile. "You suggest an alliance? You'd trust me?"

Carter laughed. "You've got to be kidding me. But we've got your number, now. Your secret name. Right, guys?"

Sadie closed her fingers, and the bonds tightened around Set. He cried out in pain. It took a great deal of energy for her to do that, and she couldn't hold him for long, but there was no point telling that to Set.

"The House of Life tried to banish the gods," Sadie said. "It didn't work. If we lock you away, we're no better than they are. It doesn't solve anything."

"I couldn't agree more," Set groaned. "So if you'll just loosen these bonds—"

"You're still a villainous piece of scum," Sadie said. "But—"

"You're just lost, aren't you?" I asked. "Since Ra's been gone, you don't know what to do with yourself. You lost the only guidance you had."

"And how would you know anything about that, girl," Set snarled.

"I know someone like you, his name was Luke, and he let himself be misguided by hate."

Set glared at me.

"You have a role to play, and you'll need controlling. I'll agree to release you—_if _you swear to behave, to return to Duat, and not cause trouble until we call you. And then you'll make trouble only for us, fighting against Apophis," Sadie said.

"Or I could chop off your head," Carter suggested. "That would probably exile you for a good long while."  
>"Set glanced back and forth between the three of us. "Make trouble for you, eh? That <em>is <em>my specialty."

Sadie gave him one last shock, then let loose his bindings.

Set stood up and flexed his arms. He winked at Horus, pretended to shoot Sadie with a finger gun. "Oh, this will be _good. _We're going to have so much fun."

"Begone, Evil Day," Sadie said.

Set blew me a kiss, then he turned into a pillar of salt and dissolved.

I was still freaked out by the god of evil blowing me a kiss, which was something you never wanted to experience. It was really weird.

The snow in the National Mall had melted in a perfect square, the exact size of Set's pyramid. Around the edges, a dozen magicians still lay passed out. The poor guys had started to stir when our portal closed, but the explosion of the pyramid had knocked them all out again. Other mortals in the area had also been affected. An early-morning jogger was slumped on the sidewalk. On nearby streets, cars idled while the drivers took naps over the steering wheels.

Not everyone was asleep, though. Police sirens rang in the distance, and seeing as we'd practically teleported into spitting distance of the president, I knew it wouldn't be long before we had a great deal of heavily armed company.

We ran to the center of the melted square, where Amos and Zia lay crumpled in the grass. There was no sign of Set's throne, or the sarcophagus, but I tried not to think of that.

Amos groaned. "What…" His eyes clouded over with terror. "Set…he…he…"

"Rest," Sadie put her hand on his forehead. "Quiet," she whispered. "_Hah-ri._"

Faint hieroglyphs glowed over his face.

Zia was worse off than Amos. Carter cradled her head and spoke reassuringly about how she would be fine, but she looked bad. Her skin was a reddish color, dry and brittle, as if she'd been terribly sunburned. In the grass around her, hieroglyphs faded—the remains of a protection circle. She'd used her last amount of energy to protect herself and Amos when the pyramid imploded.

"Set?" she asked weakly. "Is he gone?"

"Yes." Carter's voice quavered. "Stay awake. You're not going to leave me with Sadie, are you? She's bad company?"

My heart tugged at the sad scene. I found myself thinking of a certain green-eyed boy.

"I was… never here, Carter. Just a messenger—a placeholder."

"Come on. No. That's no way to talk."

"Find her will you?" Zia asked. A tear traced its way down her nose. "She'd… like that… a date at the mall."

This Zia was a _shabti_. The idea came on me like a wave. _A placeholder. _The real Zia was hidden in a cave somewhere. Oh, no, this is bad. Carter was going to freak.

By the time I came back to reality Desjardins was in front of us. "What have you done?"

Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoking from battle. His staff was aglow, and the hairs in his beard were charred. Behind him stood three equally battered magicians, who all looked like they'd just regained consciousness.

"Oh, good," Sadie muttered. "You're alive."

"You bargained with Set?" Desjardins demanded. "You let him _go_?"

"We don't answer to you," Carter growled. He stepped forward, hand on his sword, but I put out my arm to hold him back.

"Desjardins," Sadie said calmly. "Apophis is rising, in case you missed that part. We need the gods. The House of Life had to relearn the old ways."

"The old ways destroyed us!" He yelled.

"Pride destroyed you," I said, stepping up. "Greed and selfishness consumed you. It's hard to follow the path of the gods. But it is part of magic. You can't just shut it down."

"You are drunk with power," he snarled. "The gods have possessed you, as they always do. Soon you will forget you are even human. We will fight you and destroy you."

"I am not hosting a god," I said simply.

"But you—"

"Save it," Sadie interrupted. She turned to face her brother. "You know what we have to do?"

The spirit of Horus and Isis left Carter and Sadie.

Desjardins was so stunned, he momentarily forgot how to speak English. "_Ce n'est_ _pas possible. On ne pourrait pas—_"

"Yes, we could," Sadie said. "We've given up the gods of our own free will. And you've got a lot to learn about what's possible."

Carter threw down his sword. "Desjardins, I'm not after the throne. Not unless I earn it myself, and that's going to take time. We're going to learn the path of the gods. We're going to teach others. You can waste your time trying to destroy us, or you can help."

The sirens grew closer and Desjardins looked conflicted. Then he lowered his staff.

"There has been too much destruction today. But the path of the gods shall remain closed. If you cross the House of Life again…"

He let the threat hang in the air. He slammed his staff down, and with a final burst of energy, the four magicians dissolved into dust and blew away.

Amos groaned and tried to sit up. Police cars and sinister black vans blocked the curbs all around us. A helicopter was slicing through the air above the Potomac, closing fast.

"Guys, we have to get out of here," I said. "Can you summon enough magic to change Amos into something small—a mouse maybe? You guys can turn into birds, I'll ice-surf.

He nodded, still in a daze. "But Dad… we didn't…"

He looked around helplessly. I knew how that felt. Failing to save someone you loved. You had to live with that guilt for the rest of your life. I had to live with the memory of Bianca di Angelo, and the look on little Nico's face when he found out.

I couldn't grieve now. I had to be strong for them.

"First things first." I said. "We have to get Amos to safety."

"Where?" Sadie asked.

There was only one place I could think of.

**PLEASE REVIEW! Please.**


	11. Chapter XI

_**Chapter XI**_

**Katya**

If anyone felt worse than Carter, was Amos. I tried to help him. I was worried. What Set did to him, it wasn't easy to get over him. His own will was overridden and replaced with another one.

Amos decided to go to the healers at the First Nome, I felt bad that I couldn't help him in Brooklyn House, but I knew better than to ponder over that too much.

One night, we had a visitor. Amos had gone to bed early. It was before he had left for the First Nome. Khufu was watching ESPN with Muffin on his lap. Sadie and Carter sat exhausted on the deck overlooking the river. I was making _sahlab _in the kitchen. I was famous for this drink, it was like vanilla hot chocolate. It was a favorite of mine. Carter loved the Ancient Egyptian drink, Sadie preferred English tea.

Philip of Macedonia floated silently in his pool. Except for the hum of the big city, the night was quiet. Until a guy appeared at the edge of the balcony.

I immediately had my sword at his neck.

He had an easy smirk on his face, and annoyingly put his hands up in mock surrender.

Sadie stood up so quickly she knocked over the cup of tea I gave her. Not nice, Sadie.

"Anubis!" She blurted.

I kept my sword against his neck. "Sadie, explain." I demanded.

"Sadie, Carter… Katya," he said, "Would you come with me, please?"

"Sure," Sadie said with a strangled voice.

"Hold on," Carter held up his hand. "Where are we going?"

I let go of Anubis. He gestured behind him, and a door opened in the air—a pure black rectangle.

Sadie took his hand and stepped through into the darkness, Carter followed, and I grudgingly followed right before the door closed.

The Hall of Judgment looked like a living room. It was Carter and Sadie's house in Los Angeles before they got separated. I remember coming here so much I practically lived here.

"The Hall of Judgment is intuitive," said a familiar voice. "It responds to strong memories."

Only then did I realize that we weren't alone. In the throne with Ammit curled at his feet, was my Uncle Julius. I couldn't help but realize how much he looked like Dad.

I realized that he existed in two worlds. He was still there, only taller and stronger, dressed in the robes and jewels of an Egyptian Pharaoh. His skin was a dark shade of blue, like a blue raspberry flavored candy.

"Well, come on," he said. "I won't bite."

I stood back as Carter and Sadie approached him. "You're blue." Carter said.

"Goes with the territory," he laughed. "I'm sorry I didn't bring you here sooner, but things have been…"

"Complicated," Anubis suggested.

"Complicated," Julius agreed. "I have meant to tell you both how proud I am of you, how much the gods are in you debt—"

"Hang on," Sadie said. She stomped right up to the throne. Ammit the Devourer growled at her as she got closer, she growled back, which confused him into silence.

"What _are _you?" She demanded. "My dad? Osiris? Are you even alive?"

Julius looked at Anubis. "What did I tell you about her? Fiercer than Ammit, I said."

"You didn't need to tell me." Anubis' face was grave but his voice had the slightest bit of humor. "I've learned to fear that sharp tongue." They totally have something going on.

Sadie looked outraged. "Excuse me?"

"To answer the question," Julius interrupted. "I am both Osiris and Julius Kane. I am alive _and _dead, though the term _recycled _might be closer to the truth. Osiris is the god of the dead, and the god of new life. To return him to his throne—"

"You had to die," Carter said. "You knew this going into it. You _intentionally _hosted Osiris, knowing you would die. This is what you meant by 'making things right'?" He was shaking with anger as he spoke. Julius still looked down at Carter with the same expression; pride. He looked at him like everything he did delighted him, I could see how that could be frustrating.

"I missed you, Carter," he said. "I can't tell you how much. But we made the right choice. We _all _did. If you had saved me in the world above, we would have lost everything. For the first time in millennia, we have a chance at rebirth, and a chance to stop chaos because of you."

"There had to be another way," Carter said. "You could've fought as a mortal, without… without—"

"Carter, when Osiris was alive, he was a great king. But when he died—"

"He became a thousand times more powerful," Carter finished.

Julius nodded. "The Duat is the foundation for the real world. If there is chaos here, it reverberates in the upper world. Helping Osiris to his throne was a first step, a thousand times more important than anything I could've done in the world above—except being your father. And I am still your father."

"Sharp tongue?" Sadie demanded.

Julius cleared his throat. "Katya, my niece. Come here."

That was all I needed. I ran into his arms, and sobbed. He looked so much like Dad it brought back too many memories.

I pulled away and looked at him. He wiped away my tears with his thumb. "You look just like him," he said.

"No, I look nothing like him."

"You have the same eyes. When you look in them, you feel small. The same piercing gaze."

That made me sob harder. I buried my face in his shoulder. When I finally got a hold of myself I backed down next to Carter and Sadie. They both glanced at me but I ignored them.

"Of course, there is another reason I made my choice, as you can probably guess." He held out his hand and a woman in a black dress appeared next to him. She had golden hair, intelligent blue eyes. She looked like Sadie.

"Mom," Carter said.

She looked back and forth from Carter and Sadie in amazement. "Julius told me how much you'd grown, but I couldn't believe it. Carter, I bet you're shaving—"

"Mom," Carter groaned.

"—and dating girls—"

"Mom!"

She smiled at him, and I had to fight the jealousy inside me. Here they were, being reunited with their family, but what about my dad? I looked away from the reunion.

"Oh, and Katya…" Julius started but didn't need to finish as he waved his hand.

It was my dad. I ran up into his arms, then realized he was just a spirit. I could never be hugged in one of his warm embraces.

I looked up at him, and my lip quivered.

"I know, Buttercup," he said, using his pet name for me. "You look like your mother."

"I—"

Just then the Hall of Judgment rumbled.

Julius checked his watch. "We should wrap things up," he said. "The others are expecting you."

"Others?" Carter asked. I had a sick feeling he meant the other gods.

"A gift before you go." Julius nodded to Ruby.

She stepped forward and handed Carter a palm-size package of folded black linen. Sadie helped him unwrap it, and inside was a new amulet—a _djed _the spine of Osiris.

"Is that a spine?" Sadie demanded.

"It is called a _djed_," Julius said. "My symbol—the spine of Osiris."

"Yuck," Sadie muttered.

Ruby laughed. "It is a bit yuck, but honestly, it's a powerful symbol. Stands for stability, strength—"

"Backbone?" Carter asked.

"Literally." She gave him an approving look. "_Djed _also stands for the power of Osiris—renewed life from the ashes of death. This is exactly what you will need if you are to stir the blood of the pharaohs in others and rebuild the House of Life."

"The House won't like that," Sadie put in.

"No," Ruby said cheerfully. "They certainly won't."

The Hall of Judgment rumbled again.

"It is time," Dad said.

"We'll meet again, children. But until then, take care."

"Be mindful of your enemies," Ruby added.

"And tell Amos…" Dad's voice trailed off thoughtfully. "Remind my brother that Egyptians believe in the power of the sunrise. They believe each morning begins not just a new day, but a new world."

The Hall of Judgment faded, and we stood with Anubis in a field of darkness.

"I'll show you the way," he said. "It is my job."

He ushered us to a space in the darkness that looked no different from any other. But when he pushed with his hand, a door swung open. The entrance blazed with daylight.

He bowed formally to Carter and me, then turned to Sadie with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "It's been… stimulating."

Sadie flushed and pointed at him accusingly. "We're not done, mister. I expect you to look after my parents. And next time I'm in the Land of the Dead, you and I will have words."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I'll look forward to that."

We stepped through the doorway and into the palace of the gods.

It had soaring stone columns, fiery braziers, a polished marble floor, and in the middle of the room, a gold-and-red throne. All around us, gods had gathered. Many were just flashes of light and fire. Some were shadowy images that shifted from animal to human. I recognized a few: Thoth flickered into view as a wild-haired guy in a lab coat before turning into a cloud of green gas.

"What have we started?" Sadie muttered.

The throne room was full of hundreds of gods, major and minor, all darting through the palace, forming new shapes, glowing with power. An entire supernatural army… and they all seemed to be staring at us.

"Welcome," Horus said from the throne room.

"_Um, _hi," Carter said

"He has a way with words," Isis muttered, then said: "Ah, Katya Kane. It is a pleasure to meet you. You had the chance to host a god, why didn't you?"

"I have secrets, as everyone does, I want them to stay secret," I responded icily. Ha, icily, you get it? No, I'm sorry, I'm nervous, it's making me stupid.

So, basically the Isis and Horus offered to join with Carter and Sadie again, of course they refused, and Horus claimed the throne of the gods.

They also said we had a gift waiting for us at Brooklyn House.

We didn't get it until the next day.

The mansion had been completely fixed, all the stuff that still needed done was done. There were new clothes in my closet. Multiple pairs of dark blue jeans, different solid colored t-shirts, and four pairs of black high-top converse. I went out to the terrace, where Philip of Macedonia swam lazily in the pool, and Carter and Sadie were hugging a woman in a leopard print body suit.

I ran up and greeted Bast. "Carter and Sadie were just talking about going to a school that Sadie saw in her dream. To put the _djed _there."

"Pack up then, we're going on a road trip!" I exclaimed.

On the ride to the school Carter, Sadie and I got to know each other better. I told them my story (minus all things Greek), they told me theirs.

Many times the forces of chaos tried to stop us, many times they almost did. But that was behind us.

Carter put the _djed _amulet in a locker and locked it with the combination _thirteen, thirty-two, thirty-three_.

We gathered many initiates over the few months that we've been enrolling at Brooklyn House. But soon I'll be going back to camp. The next time you hear from me it'll probably be then.

Until then,

_**Katya Kane**_


	12. Afterword

_**Afterword**_

__I am completely amazed with myself. (In the most un-egotistical way possible.) I actually completed one of my projects. Well, this is just a mini-project.

The full project is to do this:

**Book 1: **_Katya Kane and the Red Pyramid_

**Book 2: **_Katya Kane and the Battle of the Labyrinth_

**Book 3: **_Katya Kane and the Throne of Fire_

**Book 4: **_Katya Kane and the Serpent's Shadow_

**Book 5: **_Katya Kane and the Last Olympian_

**Book 6: **_Katya Kane and the Lost Hero_

**Book 7: **_Katya Kane and the Son of Neptune_

**Book 8: **_Katya Kane and the Mark of Athena_

**Book 9: **_Katya Kane and the House of Hades_

**Book 10: **_Katya Kane and the Blood of Olympus_

That is my crazy plan. I hope you like my plan! Of course, this is a [Percy J., OC] story so we will have some of that when Percy actually comes into the story.

I know it's not Percabeth *sob* but, that's right _but_,when I was planning out this story I was thinking about guys that would work well with Katya—cause what's a story without love?—I thought Percy would be perfect. (Not as perfect as Percabeth, though I must admit, if it's even perfect at all.)

Anyway, the fact of the matter is, it doesn't have to be Percabeth. You just want a good love and adventure story. And hopefully this is a good story, I'll let you decide that.

And before I forget, here are some shout outs to the wonderful people who reviewed:

**ProudCanadianGal101**

**Mimmy14**

**doodadbug**

**OliviaNeith**

**and**

**StellarNymph**


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